The Lakers (39-25) look to keep their winning ways going against the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves (40-24) on Tuesday. This is the final match between the two teams this season, as L.A. looks to sweep the regular season series.
Start time and TV schedule
Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves
When: 8 p.m. PT, Mar 10
Where: Crypto.com Arena
Watch: NBC, Spectrum Sportsnet
With less than five weeks until the regular season concludes, the standings race, especially in the competitive Western Conference, will heat up.
The Lakers have won five of their last six games and are sitting in the fifth seed. Their next opponent? The current third seed in the same conference.
The Timberwolves will be a good test for this Lakers team as they’ve been playing well as of late. They’ve won eight out of their last 10 games led by Anthony Edwards, who is currently averaging 29.6 points per game. Edwards has also been getting consistent help from Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid and Rudy Gobert. Overall, the Wolves average 118.6 points per game (fifth-best in the league) and rank in the top 10 offensively and defensively.
The Lakers can absolutely go toe-to-toe with the Wolves, especially on offense. Luka Dončić — who is in a very good groove right now, scoring-wise — will definitely be able to match Edwards’ production. The biggest X-factor in this one will be whose supporting cast will outplay the other. Austin Reaves, in particular, has played well in the two games between the Lakers and Wolves in this one.
Speaking of those two games — which both happened in October — the Lakers didn’t have LeBron James in any of those either, so by default, they already know what to expect. There’s also no doubt that the Wolves are much better this time around compared to October and have the same goal as the Lakers, which is to stay in a decent position in the standings. There’s a good chance that this is going to be a thriller.
That said, it’ll be interesting to see if Los Angeles attempts to win this one similarly to how they did in their last two games against Minnesota by attacking the paint and limiting Rudy Gobert’s presence. Hopefully that will be the case and the Lakers’ win the possession battle as well as control the pace as they have over their last two games.
Let’s see if the Lakers can make a statement and improve their chances of climbing up the Western Conference standings in a massive game against the Timberwolves on Tuesday.
Notes and Updates
- Only LeBron James (right hip contusion and left foot arthritis) is written on the report.
- As for the Wolves, Kyle Anderson (right knee soreness) is questionable.
You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.
