The No. 3-seeded Los Angeles Lakers fell to the No. 6-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves on the road Friday, thanks to a stunning collapse at the end of the fourth quarter.
After the two teams had been knotted up, 103-103, the Timberwolves wrapped up the contest on a 13-1 run. Minnesota won the game, 116-104, and improved their season record to 2-1.
Final pic.twitter.com/L96mtOu0jB
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) April 26, 2025
Los Angeles superstar LeBron James notched a 38-point, 10-rebound double-double, while L.A. connected on a great 17-of-40 from long range collectively, after having notched just 21 combined triples across the first two games.
Per Khobi Price of The Orange County Register, Lakers head coach JJ Redick singled out the game’s 16-8 turnover disparity — and Minnesota’s ability to score 28 points off L.A.’s 16 turnovers — as the key problem holding back his team.
Lakers drop Game 3 to Timberwolves despite LeBron James’ big night https://t.co/rJAkRqz0l4
— O.C. Register (@ocregister) April 26, 2025
“We’re gonna have some turnovers,” Redick said. “Sometimes they force you into turnovers, which they did. But we also had some unforced turnovers: over-dribbling, trying to draw fouls, dribbling into traffic, trying to do a little bit too much with the basketball. We generated a lot of really good shots when we didn’t turn [the ball] over.”
As Price writes, the health of five-time All-NBA Lakers superstar guard Luka Doncic proved to be another pivotal problem precluding them from closing out strong.
Doncic has had a stomach bug since Thursday. Per Redick, it was so rough that the 6-foot-6 reigning Western Conference Finals MVP was throwing up as late as Friday afternoon.
Doncic still registered a solid line of 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting from the foul line, eight assists and seven boards, but was obviously struggling.
According to Price, Doncic was receiving treatment after the contest wrapped up, and opted out of addressing reporters. Redick started defense-first reserve guard Gabe Vincent in Doncic’s stead at the beginning of the second half, but Doncic was able to return to the floor pretty soon there after and close out the game.
3-and-D forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who was also once teammates with Doncic on the Dallas Mavericks, revealed things were so dire during halftime that he hadn’t expected Doncic to return to the game at all.
“I didn’t think he was going to come out [out of the locker room for the] second half,” Finney-Smith said.