The Lakers acquired dominated on their residence ground Saturday evening in Sport 1 of their first-round NBA playoff collection towards the Timberwolves, and Magic Johnson isn’t blissful about it.
Johnson took to social media to tear the No. 3-seeded Lakers, the one residence workforce to lose on the opening day of the playoffs that featured 4 video games, as they fell 117-95.
“Tonight was one of the Lakers worst performances this season,” the Lakers legend wrote on X Saturday evening. “They were flat, had no energy, and they played like it was a regular season game.”
Johnson additionally took purpose at first-year head coach JJ Redick.
“Coach JJ Redick did a great job all season but he didn’t do a good job for Game 1,” Johnson wrote. “The Lakers stood around on offense, played too much one-on-one basketball, and he didn’t make any necessary adjustments.”
Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards flirted with a triple-double, scoring 22 factors with 9 assists and eight rebounds, whereas Jaden McDaniels had 25 factors on 11-for-13 taking pictures with 9 rebounds.
Julius Randle, whom the Knicks traded to Minnesota within the Karl-Anthony Cities commerce earlier than the season, added 16 factors, 5 rebounds and 5 assists because the Timberwolves shot 51.2 % (44-for-86) from the sector, together with 50 % (21-for-42) from 3-point vary.
The Lakers, in the meantime, shot 39.8 % (33-for-83) from the sector and 36.6 % (15-for-41) from deep.
They led by seven after the primary quarter earlier than being outscored by 18 factors within the second as they have been out-muscled by the opposition.
“This Minnesota team, they’re going to be physical,” LeBron James, who had 19 factors, instructed reporters. “That’s what they bring to the table. It took us one game … (to) understand that. They took homecourt advantage from us tonight, but we have to control the controllables, and if we do that, we’ll have a much better chance to win than we did tonight.”
Luka Doncic scored a game-high 37 factors with eight rebounds.
Los Angeles will look to even the collection at residence Tuesday evening in Sport 2 earlier than the collection shifts to Minneapolis for Sport 3 on Friday.
