The Los Angeles Lakers host the Minnesota Timberwolves in the seven-eight matchup of the NBA Play-In Tournament in the Western Conference. The winner of this game will go on to play the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the NBA Playoffs while the loser will play the winner of the nine-ten game to determine who the eighth seed will be.
Minnesota is 2-1 against the Lakers this season but the two teams that are playing on Tuesday night are far different than the teams that played in each of the three matchups.
That is extremely evident by the projected starting lineups for both teams as the arrow is pointing up for LA and is pointing down for Minnesota.
Projected Lakers starting lineup vs Timberwolves:
- D’Angelo Russell (17 starts for LA)
- Austin Reaves (22 starts for LA)
- Jarred Vanderbilt (24 starts for LA)
- LeBron James (54 starts for LA)
- Anthony Davis (54 starts for LA)
Joining LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the starting lineup is the trio of D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves and Jarred Vanderbilt. This is a testament to how important the trade deadline was for the Lakers as two of the team’s starters weren’t on the team before the deadline and one was not a starter.
Russell has started every game that he was healthy for since joining the Lakers at the deadline. Vanderbilt has started 24 of 26 games. Reaves earned his starting role with incredible play and it was impossible to remove him from the starting lineup once the team got healthy.
This lineup has played 68 minutes together this season and it has the best net rating of any five-man lineup for the team this season, checking in at a modest +28.2.
Projected Timberwolves starting lineup vs Lakers:
- Mike Conley (24 starts for MIN)
- Anthony Edwards (79 starts for MIN)
- Taurean Prince (4 starts for MIN)
- Kyle Anderson (46 starts for MIN)
- Karl-Anthony Towns (29 starts for MIN)
This is not the usual starting lineup that the Minnesota Timberwolves would deploy. In fact, the Timberwolves deployed a completely different starting lineup in the last game of the regular season against the New Orleans Pelicans.
That starting lineup had Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels in for Taurean Prince and Kyle Anderson. However, for two completely different reasons, the Timberwolves are without both players for this matchup.
Gobert has been suspended one game by the T-Wolves for throwing a punch at Anderson in Sunday’s win against the Pelicans. McDaniels, meanwhile, suffered a hand injury and will likely be out for the entirety of the playoffs.