New FSM Essential Recap: Lakers vs Timberwolves - Game 13

New FSM Essential Recap: Lakers vs Timberwolves – Game 13

Franchise Sports Media

Los Angeles Lakers (7-6) | Minnesota Timberwolves (4-7)

 

The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves with a final score of 107-83.

 

Los Angeles was without DeAndre Jordan for this game as a result of a coach’s decision, while Austin Reaves was out with a hamstring injury, leaving the team mismatched against Karl-Anthony Towns and company.

The game started relatively even as D’Angelo Russell scored the game’s first point via a free throw, followed by Towns throwing a dunk down for another two points. Russell Westbrook responded with a layup to give the Lakers their first points of the game, while Anthony Davis answered a Towns’ jumper with a dunk of his own. Four minutes in, Jarred Vanderbilt made a dunk to open up an 11-4 lead for Minnesota early on.

After cutting the deficit to two, Rajon Rondo hit a step-back three with 4:30 left in the opening quarter to give the Lakers their first lead of the game. Davis followed up with a layup but was answered by a Towns’ dunk. Malik Monk entered his first points of the game by scoring five straight to make it a six-point game. The Lakers pulled out as much as an 11-point lead but settled for a 26-19 advantage after the first quarter ended.

Westbrook started the second quarter with a jumper to put the team back up by nine. The Wolves responded with 11 straight points, with Naz Reid scoring on six of them, allowing Minnesota to regain the lead. Carmelo Anthony fought back with a three to flip the game the other way, only to be answered by a Russell three. Rondo tied the game with a short floater, and one trade-off afterward led to a Davis and-one free throw to regain the one-point lead. Wayne Ellington hit his first three of the game with 5:28 left in the second quarter, and two more Davis free throws gave Los Angeles a six-point lead.

The Wolves attempted to fight back as Anthony Edwards hit a layup followed by a Reid layup to cut the deficit to four. Ellington responded with three-pointer – number two on the night – to add to the lead. Patrick Beverley and Edwards added points to bring the lead down to three, but the final basket of the half went to Davis as a layup with 1:00 left put the Lakers up by five.

 

The buzzer went off for the second time, ending the first half with the Lakers leading 49-44.

 

Minnesota roared out of the gates to start the second half, as Edwards hit a three to start the scoring. Davis hit a long jumper to maintain a four-point lead, but it would be short-lived, as Russell scored five straight points to give the Wolves a 52-51 lead. The Wolves added more heat with Vanderbilt laying in a lob from Beverley. Beverley scored another seven straight points for the Wolves to cap off a 14-0 run that spanned a little over three minutes.

After Davis made one of two free throws, Minnesota kicked back into high gear as Edwards sank another three to put the Wolves up by 11. Towns hit a three of his own at the halfway point of the quarter, and it would only get worse from there for the purple and gold. Malik Beasley and Towns helped the Wolves take the lead to 20 with 3:55 left in the frame. Towns had a field day in the third quarter as he sank three downtown shots, including two in a row in just under 40 seconds. The nightmarish quarter for the Lakers ended in them scoring just 12 points the whole quarter as they fell behind 84-61.

The fourth quarter did not provide promising signs early on for Los Angeles as the Wolves started on a 13-3 run in the first three minutes. The run was fueled by Russell scoring 11 of the points as the Wolves led by as much as 33 at the end of the run. Halfway through the quarter, the Lakers brought in their bench for the rest of the game, as Sekou Doumbouya hit his first basket of the game with 4:31 left. Dwight Howard made a little fun out of a bad situation by attempting and draining a rare three-pointer, but the Wolves were too much in this one, pulling off a 107-83 victory over the Lakers.

While both teams had their top duos ball out, the supporting cast proved too much in favor of Minnesota. The Wolves had four in double figures in scoring, led by Towns, who led all scorers with 29 points on 11-17 shooting, including four threes from the big man. Russell notched 22 points, including five threes. Reid scored 12 points off the bench in 19 minutes, while Beverley tacked on 11 in 24 minutes.

The Lakers saw only Westbrook and Davis in double figures for scoring, as it was an all-around struggle for the supporting cast. Davis scored 22 points in 31 minutes, while Westbrook scored 20 in the same amount of time. The second highest scorer of the supporting cast was Howard, with just nine points and ten rebounds.

 

The Lakers’ next game will be Sunday as they continue their homestand by welcoming the San Antonio Spurs to The Staples Center. The game will begin at 12:30 and can be seen on Spectrum SportsNet.

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– Matt Dobbs – Franchise Sports Media

Follow Matt on Twitter @RecordBowlerFSM

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