Nearly every national sports pundit picked the Los Angeles Lakers to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the NBA playoffs. They were the higher-seeded team, after all. Not to mention two players that will be sure-fire Hall of Famers in Luka Dončić and LeBron James.

Wait, was James actually in the arena to start game one?

The 40-year-old was on the court to open the game, but by the time the buzzer sounded to mark the end of the first period, “The King” had nothing but zeroes in the box score. Well, technically, James had one steal, but also one turnover and two missed field goal attempts to boot. Fortunately for the Lakers, Dončić was on fire. He poured in 16 of his game-high 37 points in the quarter, including three triples.

The Wolves looked shell-shocked in a capacity Crypto.com Arena. Two of their first three possessions ended up in unforced passes that sailed three rows deep into the crowd. That marked two of their four turnovers in less than six minutes of game time. Not great. Minnesota was able to hang around thanks to six points from Anthony Edwards and five from Jaden McDaniels.

We did get this, though.

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Despite stars on both teams struggling, a 28-21 Los Angeles lead seemed merciful. The home team shot an astonishing 7 for 12 from deep, but still somehow landed at 39.1% from the field.

The Middle — Naz Reid.

It was a different Timberwolves team that emerged in the second quarter. It all started with Jaden McDaniels. He would chip in five quick points to open things up, breaking open the dam for Minnesota’s offense to get a flow. The real story of the meat of this game was two words:

Naz Reid.

Two Words erupted for 12 points on a perfect 4 of 4 performance deep. How about on defense? Can we interest you in a swat on LeBron James?

Naz led the charge in a 38-20 second period that saw the Wolves go up by as much as 13 points. He was absolutely stunning as the fans in the stadium groaned with every make. Most of his makes came off beautiful ball movement, with Edwards and Julius Randle leading the charge. They got deep into the paint, then sprayed the ball out for open looks.

Donte DiVincenzo showed up fashionable late and in style, too.

Minnesota continued to use that momentum after the halftime break. Immediately coming out of the tunnel, Finch drew up a beautiful play for Edwards to get into the paint. It looked like he had a wide-open look for an easy layup.

He opted to hit McDaniels wide open in the corner for a trey.

The next possession, he missed a layup, but immediately corralled his own miss. He could have simply gone right back up with it.

He opted to hit Randle wide open for another trey.

The next play happened in transition after a Dončić missed a 3-pointer. Edwards had the ball with a head of steam on the break. Time to score?

He kept his head up and found McDaniels for an easy layup.

This unselfish style of basketball is likely what Head Coach Chris Finch referred to during the post-game presser, indicating that Edwards was very vocal in the locker room about where he wanted his teammates on the floor.

To cap off this run, Edwards got the ball in early transition on their next possesion and this time decided to pull up for a deep three. Maybe a foot past the logo.

A well-deserved reward for the Timberwolves superstar.

The 11-0 run bumped Minnesota’s lead all the way up to 22. Instead of letting off the gas, Finch had his team trying to step on the Lakers’ throat. The Wolves’ defense allowed just three Los Angeles players to score in the third quarter. Inversely, Minnesota had eight players score. This is the depth Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations, Tim Connelly, was envisioning when he made the Karl-Anthony Towns trade.

The Finish — Sending a Message

Minnesota’s lead swelled to 27 points midway through the third. Of course, there’s always the inner demons that would say, “There’s still 17 minutes left of the game.” Things got a bit mucky with a revenge game by former Wolves fan favorite, Jarred Vanderbilt. In a way that only he could, Vanderbilt got under the skin of Randle to draw a technical foul. Then he wildly flailed on a missed layup attempt and accidentally elbowing Naz Reid.

It truly got to “scary hours” when Edwards came up hobbling after a layup attempt. He limped straight to the locker room, but as he has done so often this season, he emerged early in the fourth looking like he didn’t miss a beat. He confirmed postgame that it was just cramps.

This weird phase bridging the third and fourth quarters saw the Lakers get one last gasp. Austin Reaves had gotten loose off a handful of isolation pull-up triples. Dončić hit a logo heave at the end of the third period buzzer. It sent a shock throw the mostly dismayed Los Angeles crowd.

It almost felt like déjà vu from Milwaukee just over a week ago. Dončić and James scored a handful of times to pull the Lakers all the way to within 12 and still 10:27 left on the game clock, but that would be as close as they would get. Two more deep balls from Minnesota would essentially slam the door shut.

There was still over five minutes left in the game before fans headed for the exit. Both teams began emptying their benches just a couple minutes later. It ended up as a thorough smashing of a team that many national talking heads did not expect. Tasteful for Wolves Nation, but not satisfying enough for the players.

The message was clear from both Edwards and Reid after the game when Canis Hoopus asked what their message was to fans after everyone picked against the Wolves in the series.

“No message.”

Anthony Edwards on his message to fans who see national media all picking against the Wolves: “No message. They still got the Lakers. Lakers are supposed to win. That’s just how it’s supposed to go. We not supposed to be here. We just gon compete to the best of our ability.”

— Canis Hoopus (@canishoopus.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T03:57:33.010Z

They say an NBA postseason series doesn’t start until the road team wins.

Well. Road team won.

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Up Next

Both teams suit back up, same place, on Tuesday, April 22 at 9:00 PM CT, broadcasted on TNT. See you in the comments section.