LOS ANGELES — Hear me out, but what if defense … wins championships?
Defense definitely won a first-round playoff game Tuesday night.
Maybe that notion will help you cope with how offensive you’ve mostly found the Lakers’ offense through two games this postseason. Maybe it will even give you some hope for a run to come.
Spurred by LeBron James, the Lakers’ tone-setting 40-year-old superstar, the Lakers defended their rears off to square their best-of-seven Western Conference series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, 1-1, winning a bruising rock fight in Game 2, 94-85.
LeBron was a leader of the Lakers’ much-more-physical defense, right where they needed him after the Timberwolves “punked” – Austin Reaves’ word for it – them on Saturday night, burying a franchise-playoff-record 21 3-point shots in a 117-95 blowout.
The Lakers tallied the same total of points three nights later, but after the Timberwolves shot 51.2% (44 for 86) in Game 1, they were 38% (30 of 79) from the floor on Tuesday. And it wasn’t just that they missed the shots they made Saturday, they didn’t take the same shots, getting off only 25 3-point attempts Tuesday, and making only five en route to their fewest points all season.
“Fair to say we won the game with our defense tonight,” first-year Lakers coach JJ Redick said.
And how about this? A Luka Doncic team held an opponent to 85 points in a postseason game – fewer than his former Dallas team gave up in any game since it traded him to L.A. in February because, apparently, the Mavericks’ brass thought they needed to improve defensively.
What the Lakers needed was someone who could be counted on to help take some of the scoring burden from James’ shoulders – freeing him up to use his veteran savvy and what’s left of his impressively preserved athleticism elsewhere.
Like on defense.
On Tuesday, Doncic again put up a team-high 31 points and nine assists, going 9 for 20 from the field and 11 for 11 from the free-throw line.
And that was enough. Even though all the rest of the Lakers combined to score 64 points, in this slugfest, Doncic gave the Lakers enough.
He gave James enough.
“Obviously, the body will do what the body will do,” James said, “… just trying to give my teammates what I have offensively but more importantly defensively, helping rebounding, crashing, being physical. Also using my mind to call out things teams are doing so they can be ahead of a lot of plays as well so they’re not surprised out there.”
We watched James crash and box out and grab 11 rebounds. We saw him help and collapse when he needed to. Saw him slide his feet and use his big body and put forth the effort required in a hard-fought playoff victory.
Saw him come up with a hugely timely steal, swiping the ball from Anthony Edwards at midcourt with 2:43 to play and the Timberwolves threatening to convert a fast-break that would have cut the Lakers’ lead to seven points or six – or, if they would have pulled a four-point play out of their hat, five.
Instead, the Lakers’ veteran leader snuck up in Edwards’ “rearview,” as James called it, snatched the ball and laid it in to push the lead back to 11 points.
“I was able to kind of sneak in [and] … use my athleticism and smarts,” said James, who also had 21 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. “I thought, if I wasn’t able to steal it at least I can make him change directions … it wasn’t about the points at that point, it was about the momentum.”
It took a heck of an effort, but the Lakers have wrestled back momentum in the series as it heads to Minnesota for Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Sunday – when they’ll have to turn in another heck of an effort to stand a chance.
James might not automatically make every shot he once did, and he might not make it all look as effortless as he once could. But the winning effort he put forth Tuesday, with playoff stakes sky high and Doncic doing the heaviest lifting offensively, it came on the defensive end. It came where it was most valuable, and maybe, most rewarding.
“Just super happy,” James said Tuesday night. “I don’t take it for granted being able to play this game still.”