FROM THE ABOVE ARTICLE:

The big Lakers question: Can their center-less lineups hold up?

Trading Davis and rescinding the Mark Williams trade has settled the Lakers on a center-less identity. While Jaxson Hayes has been largely impressive and outperformed his veteran’s minimum contract, the Lakers are often at their best with some frontline combination of James, Hachimura, Dorian Finney-Smith and Jarred Vanderbilt. All four players can switch between centers, wings and even guards, and the former three provide a level of spacing that can bend the best defenses until they break.

The Lakers have faced some of the better two-big teams in the league recently — Oklahoma City, Houston, Memphis and Dallas — and dictated the terms of engagement. In all four matchups, the opponent was forced to adjust to the Lakers’ smaller groups, and not the other way around. That’ll be the goal for Los Angeles against Minnesota, which rotates its three bigs — Gobert, Randle and Naz Reid — in various combinations.

The key for the Lakers will be punishing the Wolves for staying big, testing the foot speed, versatility and ability to cover ground defensively of the Wolves’ bigs. Defensively, the Lakers will need to play physically, box out around the rim with multiple players and ensure the Wolves’ guards and wings aren’t beating them to 50-50 balls.

“You just got to play hard as s—,” Austin Reaves said of the Lakers’ smaller lineups playing the Wolves’ bigger groups. “Every possession, you win by the smallest margin or you lose the smallest margin in the playoffs as we could tell from last year. Obviously, ain’t the same team, but if you go back and watch last year’s games, one thing here and there could have changed the whole series. We can’t take possessions off.”

The Lakers have their five-man closing unit: Finney-Smith, Hachimura, James, Reaves and Dončić. All five players should play 30-plus minutes and close games together. They don’t want to veer away from that. The group’s ability to replicate its regular-season success and win its minutes against iterations of Gobert, Reid and Randle will likely determine the series.

The big Wolves question: How do they defend Dončić?
The Wolves, like most of the NBA, have a Dončić problem.>/B>

Lakers’ X-factor: Rui Hachimura

Hachimura was the primary Edwards defender in the last matchup and has spent plenty of time defending Randle as a Laker over the past three seasons (he’s held him to 39 percent shooting, per NBA.com’s imperfect tracking data). He should see plenty of time as the primary defender on both Edwards and Randle, making him one of the most important players in the series.

The Lakers’ starting small forward has developed into a dangerous 3-point shooter in Los Angeles, making 41-plus percent of his 3s in back-to-back seasons (he shot 41.3 percent this season). If the Lakers play him at center, he can attack the Wolves’ bigs as a pick-and-pop threat or on the weak side as a floor-spacer.

Minnesota will test Hachimura’s decision-making on closeouts. He doesn’t have the quickest release and can sometimes struggle with processing. Hachimura has grown tremendously on both sides of the ball this season. On balance, he’s been the Lakers’ fourth-best player — and is certainly their fourth-best offensive weapon. They need him to make 3s, attack closeouts, battle Minnesota’s bigs in the paint and remain locked-in possession to possession.

Wolves’ X-factor: Jaden McDaniels

If the Wolves are to pull off the upset, McDaniels will likely be at the center of it.

Perhaps he fares better defensively against Dončić this time around. Or maybe he’s able to disrupt James’ drives or envelope Reaves on the perimeter. He’s Minnesota’s best or second-best defender, and they’re going to need a Herculean performance from him on that end.

Offensively, McDaniels is the perimeter player the Lakers will help off the most. He’s shooting just 31.1 percent on 3s after the All-Star break and has shot below 34 percent in consecutive seasons. Considering Minnesota’s caliber of shooters — DiVincenzo (39.7 percent), Nickeil Alexander-Walker (38.1 percent), Reid (37.9 percent), and Mike Conley (41.0 percent) — McDaniels is a player the Lakers will live with taking semi-contested 3s against late closeouts.

If McDaniels can neutralize one of LA’s stars, shoot above league-average on 3s, and make winning 50-50 plays (offensive rebounds, loose balls, etc.), he has the chance to swing this series.

Reid — a Laker killer through the years — is also worth noting as an honorable mention.

Series X-factor: Which team strays from their identity more?

The pivot point of this series is the frontline. This, in a way, is an extension of the Lakers’ biggest question.

The Lakers prefer to downsize and play multiple power forwards to space teams out to the point of breaking defensively. They also can switch one through five — or at least one through four or two through five — which keeps their shell defense intact. The Wolves prefer to play two centers and a power forward, dominating teams offensively with their size and strength and funneling opponents into Gobert and their thicket of arms.

The Lakers can counter by playing Hayes more, or even Vanderbilt for defense and rebounding, but those lineups haven’t been as effective as their “Lasers Lineup” — two 40-plus 3-point shooters in Finney-Smith and Hachimura around their big three.

The Wolves, meanwhile, are steadfast in remaining a team that prefers to drop, hedge or blitz in pick-and-rolls. They’d rather not switch. But it’s going to be difficult to do that against the Lakers’ star trio, who basically strong-arm teams into switching because that’s the most effective way to try to stall Dončić, James and Reaves.

Whichever team is forced to adjust more — and earlier in the series — botch tactically and within their rotation will be at the greater disadvantage.

Prediction

This series feels more like a conference semifinals or conference finals bout than a first-round matchup. These teams were separated by one win in the regular season. The Wolves made the conference finals last season. The Lakers have looked like a group capable of getting there — when healthy — post-Dončić trade.

When splitting hairs between the two, it’s easy to see why the Lakers are favored. They have the second-best record within the conference, the second-best home record and two top-10 players. They have two of the best players in the series, and possibly three of the best four when factoring in Reaves. That’s just too much scoring, shot creation and playmaking to overcome.

The Wolves’ defense will challenge them, but they don’t have good matchups for Dončić or James’ individual brilliance.

The Lakers have a better shot at disrupting what the Wolves are looking to do — with the offense so tied to Edwards — than the Wolves do of disrupting what the Lakers want to do. If they can find a way to slow Dončić, either one-on-one or through blitzing, doubling or hedging, the Lakers can just simply run more of the offense through James or Reaves. The Wolves simply don’t have as much playmaking or high-level decision-making outside of Edwards and perhaps Randle.

This will be a close and competitive series, but the Lakers have enough top-end firepower and tactical versatility to advance.

Lakers in 6 games.

That is clutch player of the year. It’s a relatively new award only the last couple of years.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick is cooking. With the playoffs around the corner and all eyes on whether LeBron James and Luka Doncic can dominate together, Redick isn’t just rolling out practice drills—he’s rebooting the entire mindset of this Lakers squad. While the spotlight is (rightfully) shining on LeBron’s health and Maxi Kleber’s progress, the real headline might be something deeper: Redick is working on the Lakers’ soul.

And he just confirmed it. “No live action. Today was potentially not a mental day. We’ll get into the mental and prep side tomorrow,” Redick said when asked about practice. “Today was just about getting back up in the gym, some conditioning, a lot of shooting.”

That might sound like your average off-day update, but let’s decode that. Redick is intentionally pacing this team—pressing reset, sharpening the mental blades, and turning the intensity dial slowly before cranking it to full blast against the Minnesota Timberwolves. That, folks, is a coach playing chess while others play HORSE.

If you’ve been watching the 2024-25 Lakers, you know they’ve gone through waves. From LeBron’s mid-season groin injury to the wild Doncic trade, to watching Redick evolve from podcasting to playoff planning—it’s been a Hollywood script in real time. And now, Coach JJ is writing the third act.

The Lakers didn’t just win 50 games—they survived a chaotic season, built chemistry, and turned adversity into armor. And now, Redick wants that energy focused, refined, and battle-tested for what’s to come.

His leadership style isn’t about yelling in the locker room—it’s about recalibrating. Turning the vibes around. Making sure everyone—from the rookies to the King—is mentally aligned for a post-season grind that’ll test every muscle, every instinct, and every heartbeat. That’s why this “non-live” practice was so crucial. This wasn’t rest—it was the calm before the storm.

LeBron James Is “Fine,” But Redick’s Handling Him Like Gold

Let’s talk LeBron. The groin injury he suffered against the Rockets on April 9 had fans holding their breath. After all, this man is 22 seasons deep and still the engine that powers LA’s playoff train. But Redick was quick to squash the panic. “LeBron was a full participant in shooting and conditioning,” he said, adding that the injury was minor and James is “fine.”

The vibes? Immaculate. The King is healthy. And not only that—he’s peaking at just the right time. You don’t bench LeBron for fun during a playoff push. You protect the investment. You let him get his shots up and stay loose, and you unleash him when the lights are brightest. And that’s exactly what JJ Redick’s doing.

With Luka beside him and fresh legs underneath, this might be the most dangerous LeBron we’ve seen since the Bubble.

…

Let’s not forget about Maxi Kleber, the under-the-radar wild card who’s been inching closer to a return. The German big man has been sidelined since fracturing his foot in January (back when he was still a Maverick), but Redick confirmed Kleber is now doing shooting and conditioning drills. “Maxie is back on the court doing on-court activities, but there’s no timeline,” Redick clarified.

Seriously, two of the greatest and smartest point guards to ever play the game being on the same team together. Lakers in 5!

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Color us shocked … ESPN’s panel of NBA experts have unanimously predicted that the Los Angeles Lakers will take out the Minnesota Timberwolves in their Western Conference first-round series set to tip off on Saturday in Los Angeles.

The Wolves finished the regular season as the No. 6 seed in the West, after winning eight of their last 10 games. That hot form, that included wins over Detroit, Denver and Memphis (all teams in the playoffs), wasn’t enough to get even one of ESPN’s 10 “NBA experts” to choose Minnesota in the playoff picks the organization released on Monday.

Motivation pic.twitter.com/iL1qPiizKt

— Jim Petersen (@JimPeteHoops) April 14, 2025
Wolves TV analyst Jim Petersen commented on the unanimous decision by posting a screenshot on his personal X (formerly Twitter) account, saying “Motivation.”

While the experts predicted the Lakers to win the series, Minnesota is at least expected to not go down easy. Eight of the 10 experts have the series going to six games, with the other two predicting Minnesota taking it all the way to a Game 7.

Minnesota and Los Angeles split the regular-season series, with each team winning a pair of games. Each team won their home games in the series, including the season opener between the two teams in which the Lakers topped the Wolves 110-103 in Los Angeles. Only one of those games, however, came after the Lakers acquired star guard Luka Doncic.

Three of the four games came in the opening two months of the season. Doncic played in the final matchup between the two teams, a 111-102 Lakers win on Feb. 27.

Game 1 of the best-of-seven series tips off Saturday in Los Angeles, with a nationally televised tipoff at 7 p.m. CT on ABC.