Lakers matching up against Minnesota Timberwolves in first-round playoff series
PORTLAND, Ore. — After walking off the court at Moda Center following Sunday’s regular-season finale defeat to the Portland Trail Blazers, the Lakers coaching staff, training staff and players who made the trip gathered around various parts of the visitor’s locker room to watch the ending of Clippers at Golden State Warriors.
With the Lakers as the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference entering the playoffs, they awaited the result of the Clippers-Warriors game to see who’d be the No. 6 seed and their first-round matchup for the playoffs.
And once Warriors guard Buddy Hield’s potential game-tying 3-pointer hit the side of the backboard, the Lakers gained the clarity they were seeking, with Jarred Vanderbilt yelling, “We’re going to Minnesota, boys!”
The Clippers’ victory over the Warriors not only clinched the No. 5 seed in the West for themselves but also dropped the Warriors to No. 7, moving the Minnesota Timberwolves to the No. 6 seed, matching them up in the first round with the Lakers.
Minnesota won 17 of its final 21 games to clinch the No. 6 seed.
The Timberwolves are one of four teams, along with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers, to rank in the top-10 in offensive and defensive rating.
“It’s a very difficult opponent,” Coach JJ Redick said. “They’ve played as well as anyone, lately. They present a lot of problems.”
The Timberwolves clinched a playoff spot after their victory over the Utah Jazz on Sunday, finishing the season with a 49-33 record.
The Lakers will have homecourt advantage for the first-round playoff series against the Timberwolves.
The series is expected to start on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena. It will mark the first time that the Lakers hosted their first-round series in Los Angeles since April 2012.
The Timberwolves and Lakers regular-season series finished tied with two victories apiece, with the last matchup coming on Feb. 27, a 111-102 home win for the Lakers.
Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert weren’t available for the last matchup between the Lakers and Timberwolves, which was the lone time the teams matched up since the Lakers traded for Luka Doncic, who was just six games into his tenure with the Lakers at the time.
“[We’ve] had games the last six, seven weeks where we hadn’t played the team since [Anthony Davis] was on the team and didn’t have Luka,” Redick said. “So we have a way of prepping based on previous games against Luka. We have a general idea of what their rules are, just like they have a general idea of what our rules are. I don’t think it doesn’t necessarily matter that we don’t have anything on tape with both teams at full strength.”
The Lakers won the regular-season-opening matchup between the teams, 110-103, on Oct. 22. The Timberwolves blew out the Lakers, 109-80, on Dec. 2 in Minneapolis and beat the Lakers again, 97-87, at Target Center on Dec. 13.
The Lakers-Timberwolves matchup will mark their first playoff series since 2004, which the Lakers won 4-2 in the Western Conference Finals en route to a run to the NBA Finals.
The teams also matched up in the first round of the playoffs in 2003 – a series the Lakers also won 4-2.
The Lakers beat the Timberwolves in 2023 Play-In Tournament game to determine the No. 7 seed for that season’s playoffs en route to a run to the Western Conference finals.