LOS ANGELES — Repeat after me: I will not overreact to Game 1. I will not overreact to Game 1. I will not …
But, ouch, man.
If the third-seeded Lakers really want to “Unleash Joy” as their playoff branding tells us they do, they’re going to need to react to this Game 1 – a 117-95 loss to the the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves to open their best-of-seven first-round playoff series on Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena.
The stunning blowout spoiled the Lakers’ first playoff series opener at home in front of fans – a sellout crowd of 18,997 – since 2012, and also Luka Doncic’s Lakers playoff debut.
Their recently acquired superstar lived up to his billing as a proven playoff protagonist – and pest – carrying more than his fair share of the offensive load. Doncic finished with 37 points on 12-of-22 shooting, including going 5 for 10 from behind the arc and 8 for 9 at the free-throw line.
But he had just a single assist. No coincidence: The rest of the Lakers combined to go just 21 for 61 from the field and 10 for 31 from deep. LeBron James finished with 19 points, only nine after halftime, when Austin Reaves scored 14 of his 16.
But I will not overreact to a Game 1 loss … even though we all watched the Lakers get bullied on the boards and at the rim and in pursuit of loose balls.
And, more consequentially, bludgeoned from 3-point range; the Timberwolves made 21 of their 42 3-point attempts. That onslaught … slaughter, with the Lakers trailing by 27 with five minutes to play in the third quarter, when the Lakers trailed, 85-58.
But I will not overreact, I will not overreact … even if it’s now up to the Lakers’ rookie head coach to show us whether he’s got a chess move or two or 10 in him to keep his team out of another such hole.
Redick’s refrain postgame: “We’ll be better.”
Said Doncic: “We gotta be better.”
And so Redick will have to find solutions for Minnesota’s exceptional length inside and its torrid shooting outside. Yeah, he’ll definitely have to figure out how his team can stop giving the Timberwolves so many good-lookin’ 3s – defense that assuredly does not win championships, as certain folks in Dallas have been reminding us recently.
And Redick also will have to correct the math on points in the paint (which Minnesota won by 12) and on the fastbreak (T-Wolves by 19). And get James and Reaves going. And get his squad to come out with much more of the physicality necessitated by the playoffs.
“We’ll take a look at everything and decide what we want to tweak,” Redick said. “… we’ll look at the film and see what we can do better.”
And so, no, I will not overreact … but is it possible we underestimated Minnesota?
Should the team that reached the Western Conference finals last season and then came into this series ranked between fourth and eighth in the NBA in 3-point field goal percentage, second-chance points and offensive and defensive and net rating perhaps have been favored?
Should the squad that finished the season on a 17-4 tear, that gave up the fifth-fewest points and limited opponents to the seventh-lowest field goal percentage and sixth-lowest 3-point percentage, should that team perhaps have been sizable favorites?
Redick certainly sung the Timberwolves’ praises in public before the series, after studying the team that went 49-33: “They’re a better team than 49 wins. There are three (other) teams that are top 10 in offense and defense, and they’re all 60-win teams,” said Redick, with a nod to the Western Conference’s top seed Oklahoma City, as well was Eastern Conference powerbrokers Cleveland and Boston.
He surely cautioned his Lakers – who finished with one more regular-season victory (50-32) – about that privately, too, over the course of a week of practice.
And yet the Lakers – save for Doncic, who scored 16 first-quarter points and immediately went at Timberwolves’ Rudy Gobert, living up to his billing as the French center’s living, recurring nightmare – didn’t match Minnesota’s energy until a short-lived and inconsequential spurt late in the third quarter.
But I will not overreact to a terribly deep hole and fan exodus with more than four minutes left in the fourth quarter before Bronny James’ minutes in a Game 1 loss … and neither would the Lakers, Reaves said.
“The mood,” he said, “was you don’t win or lose it through one game. We have an opportunity to even up the series on our home court and go compete for two games on their home court, so you never lose the game after the first game.”
But there’s another familiar playoff refrain you’ve probably heard: It ain’t a series till someone’s stolen a victory on the opponent’s home court.
Well, this series is a go.
As for whether the Lakers’ playoff hopes are? We’ll wait for Game 2, and react accordingly.