The Los Angeles Lakers have begun the postseason stage of the JJ Redick era in a rather disheartening manner. Matched up against a 2024 Western Conference Finalist, Los Angeles seemed lost in Game 1, failing to embrace any semblance of a team-wide identity.
That inevitably resulted in the Lakers at least temporarily squandering home-court advantage in an abhorent loss in Los Angeles.
The finger has been pointed in many directions, with Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves receiving much of the blame. Reaves shot just 5-of-13 during Game 1, dishing out a mere three assists, while Hachimura went 3-of-9 from the field.
For as easy as it would be to blame Reaves, or even the simple fact that Lakers other than Luka Doncic shot 34.4 percent from the field, the bigger issue was a general lack of cohesion.
LA's under 25% OOR for what I have logged so far, which would be the worst game on the entire season.
— Cranjis McBasketball (@Tim_NBA) April 20, 2025
Just freelance after freelance
The provided statistic reveals how inconsistently the Lakers were running actual offensive sets to generate offense—and there's no way around how profoundly that impacted the result.
Lakers must stop falling in love with ISO if they hope to stand a chance
It's easy to fall into isolation tendencies with shot creators such as Doncic, LeBron James, and Reaves. All three are capable of posting gaudy numbers and bending a defense to their will, with Doncic and James doing so at a superstar level.
The Lakers got to 50 wins by running a creative motion offense, however, and allowing it to grind to a halt has done them no favors up to this point.
Los Angeles has vast postseason experience with all of Doncic, James, and Gabe Vincent boasting NBA Finals appearances on their respective résumés. James, of course, is a four-time NBA champion and four-time Finals MVP whose poise under pressure rivals the greatest of all time.
Minnesota was in the Western Conference Finals less than a year ago, however, and has a proven head coach in Chris Finch who won't often allow his team to give a game away.
As such, this series will ultimately be decided by which team finds a way to thrive beyond its stars and utilize its depth better than the other side. That much was proven in Game 1, as Jalen McDaniels and Naz Reid combined for 48 points on 19-of-25 shooting from the field.
Timberwolves players other than regular-season leading scorers Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle accounted for 59.9 percent of Minnesota's offense.
By comparison, Doncic and James scored 58.9 percent of the Lakers' points in Game 1. If you're looking for a statistic to blame that on, try this: Minnesota came up with nearly twice as many assists as Los Angeles, and 65.9 percent of their field goals were assisted—20.4 percent higher than the Lakers' mark of 45.5 percent.
The Lakers will need to step up on defense, but if they're going to win this series, moving both with and without the ball will be an essential step toward victory.