There, there. All better.
The Lakers recovered from a knee scrape of a playoff opener Tuesday to leap up and kick the stunned Minnesota Timberwolves in the teeth.
Now, now. That wasn’t so hard, was it?
In turning a dread-filled Crypto.com Arena into a place of joyous healing, the wounded Lakers survived a first cut, tied an opening series and saved an entire season with a 94-85 victory over Minnesota in Game 2 of the first round of the NBA playoffs.
What a difference an elbow makes.
One game after being wadded up and tossed aside like a hot dog wrapper by a Timberwolves team that was just hungrier, the Lakers pushed and shoved and fought their way into personifying a must win.
It involves a must jab. A must hook. A must knockout.
It’s LeBron James running over people, Austin Reaves bouncing off people, Gabe Vincent slugging through people.
“We were physical,” said Lakers coach JJ Redick, who pleaded for this type of play after the Game 1 beatdown. “The playoffs require a different level.”
It took them two games, but they’ve reached that level, as epitomized Tuesday by Rui Hachimura battling into a face injury that initially required a mask, until he threw the mask aside and kept fighting, no room for a must injury on this mustiest of nights.
Hachimura only made four shots, but his 34 minutes set the tone for a game in which Luka Doncic’s 31 points seemed like an afterthought.
“[Hachimura] played like a warrior tonight, I’m sure that he is probably in the X-ray room right now,” Redick said. “But he did a lot of really good things. … There were a few plays that he made just getting deflections and disrupting plays … some plays at the rim that don’t show up in the box score, but he was awesome.”
Only 7% of NBA teams that have fallen behind two-games-to-none have won that seven-game series, and the Lakers played like that stat, battering Minnesota in almost the exact opposite of the nightmare that was three days earlier.
Timberwolves guard Donte DiVincenzo charges into Gabe Vincent.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
On Saturday the Timberwolves had shockingly won the playoff opener by 22 points. On Tuesday the Lakers outscored them by 22 in the first 16 minutes and were rarely seriously challenged again
On Saturday Minnesota’s Naz Reid had six treys and 23 points. On Tuesday he didn’t make a basket until the fourth quarter and finished with nine points.
On Saturday Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels had 25 points. On Tuesday he had three baskets.
On Saturday it appeared the Timberwolves could win this series, or at least push it deep into six or seven games. On Tuesday, not so much, the Lakers showing their clear dominance in every area backed by a legendarily springtime loud home crowd that annually shakes, rattles and rolls.
The series travels to Minnesota for games Friday and Sunday, at which point the guess here is that the Lakers will be fully in control.
Fans were waving souvenir white towels late Tuesday night, but it was clear that the Timberwolves were the ones in full surrender.
“I thought we looked at what we didn’t do so well, which was a lot of things in Game 1,” James said. “We took that to heart, we hold each other accountable, we make the adjustments and we had a better outing tonight. And now we have to be even better on Friday.”
There was one other notable difference between Game 1 and Game 2, and it involved the color on Redick’s face.
Rui Hachimura wore this mask for only a little while in Game 2.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
On Saturday the Lakers rookie head coach had been publicly challenged after the opening loss by none other than Magic Johnson, who tweeted, “Coach JJ Redick did a great job all season but he didn’t do a good job for Game 1. The Lakers stood around on offense, played too much one-on-one basketball, and he didn’t make any necessary adjustments.”
On Tuesday, Redick’s mettle was directly tested during the only two times the outcome felt even remotely in doubt.
The first was midway through the third quarter, when the Timberwolves took advantage of the Lakers confusion to pull to within 11. A screaming Redick called a timeout and launched into a profane rant captured by the wonders of national television.
Yeah, he was mad, in a rage that turned his face beet red.
“Yeah, I’ve done that in a game a handful of times in six preseason games, 82 regular season,” said Redick.”It’s not something that I’d want to do. It’s not something I’m more than comfortable doing. But I think tonight it was just more about getting that urgency button switched back on.”
The Lakers could have collapsed under the internal pressure. But it turns out, the reddened Redick only made them tougher.
JJ Redick yelled at his team, and it seemed to light a fire under them in Game 2.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
After the timeout they ramped up their defense and sharpened their offense. Doncic hit a bank shot, Dorian Finney-Smith hit a three-pointer, James banked in a follow shot and Doncic hit two three throws to quickly push the lead back to 20.
They were briefly challenged again in the fourth quarter when their offense again got sloppy — two straight shot-clock violations — and the Timberwolves pushed to within single digits, leading Redick to call another get-in-their-faces timeout with 6:16 left.
Once again, a big shot for the rookie. And once again, he connected. Redick talked, his team responded, James scoring on a layup off a nifty pass from Reaves, James drawing a charge, Reaves fighting for a layup, James with a steal and a layup, the Lakers leading by 11 in the final minutes, the entire arena standing and screaming, threat thwarted, game over.
Next up, Game 3, featuring the outmanned Timberwolves against an emerging Laker team that is finally realizing its own strength.
“Going into Minnesota is gonna be a war,” Doncic said.
One for which the Lakers are now ready.
Or, in the words of Tuesday’s pregame midcourt cheerleader Ric Flair.
“WOOOO!”
This story originally appeared on LA Times
