What We Learned About the MN Timberwolves in Dominant Game One Win Over Lakers (2025)

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What we learned about the Minnesota Timberwolves in game one The Minnesota Timberwolves are too deep for the LA Lakers The Timberwolves are too big for the Lakers Anthony Edwards showed up when needed, but…

The 6-seed Minnesota Timberwolves entered Saturday’s round one Western Conference playoff series vs the -seed Los Angeles Lakers as major underdogs, not just tonight, but in the series. Pundits, sportsbooks… it didn’t matter. Everyone was picking the Lakers.

After LA acquired Luka Doncic at the trade deadline, the NBA world saw the tandem between him and LeBron James as too much star power that the Wolves to handle. Of course, that’s all pre-series chatter. Nobody knows what is going to happen in a playoff series until games are actually played.

The MN Timberwolves proved that tonight. Sure, Anthony Edwards is the only player on the Wolves roster who will ever be mentioned in the same sentence as either Doncic or James. It was up to Minnesota to prove that their “secondary” talent could make up for the discrepancy at the top of the depth chart.

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What we learned about the Minnesota Timberwolves in game one

What We Learned About the MN Timberwolves in Dominant Game One Win Over Lakers (1)

Of course, that didn’t negate what the Timberwolves need from Edwards in this series. There’s a reason he’s looked at as the next face of the league. Playing against two of the biggest stars in the NBA, and arguably the greatest player of all time, this series is his chance to take the LA spotlight for himself.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are too deep for the LA Lakers

Both Anthony Edwards and Luka Doncic went to the bench at the start of the second quarter. At that point, the Lakers had jumped out to an early 28-21 lead, entering the second quarter, both Anthony Edwards and Luka Doncic went to the bench. What happened next may have been like looking into a keyhole into the rest of this series.

With Luka on the bench and LeBron James struggling to assert himself offensively (more on that momentarily), the Wolves bench started to show off its depth, scoring 15 of the game’s next 17 points to take a 35-30 lead with 8:52 remaining. It wouldn’t get much better for the Lakers from there, either.

Related: Experts are Wrong: Lakers Don’t Have the Talent to Hang with Timberwolves

Behind the hot outside shooting of — not Anthony Edwards — but Naz Reid (17 points) and Jaden McDaniels (19 points), the Minnesota Timberwolves pushed their lead all the way to 11 points by the end of the first half, then up past 20 points midway through the third quarter.

Eventually, LeBron James got going for the Lakers, but he didn’t score his first points until well into the second quarter. With 6:27 remaining in the 3rd, the Wolves had pushed their lead all the way to 26 points. Ant had 14 of them, the rest of his team had 66.

LA, meanwhile, had just 21 of their 56 points scored by players not named Luka Doncic or LeBron James. As I predicted before this series started, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ depth is going to be a huge problem for the Los Angeles Lakers in this series.

The Timberwolves are too big for the Lakers

All of the national media pundits entered this series talking about the Minnesota Timberwolves size as if it was going to hurt them against the perimeter threesome of LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reeves.

But just like we found out in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs, when they swept the Phoenix Suns, the Wolves have answers both offensively and defensively, when opponents try to go small on them. On Saturday night, we saw that play out yet again.

The only 7-footer that the Lakers play regularly is Jaxson Hayes. And while the 24-year-old big man out of Texas started game one, he didn’t play much, limited to only 8 minutes on the evening. If LA head coach JJ Reddick can’t trust Hayes to play big minutes in this series, it could pose yet another huge problem for the Lakers.

Not only do the Wolves have size, but they have versatile size. If they need to bang down low or run screen and roll actions, Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle are two of the best in the league, depending on how you want to get the ball into the paint.

But if Minnesota needs to play “small”, enter two different types of tweener big men, Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid — both of whom are 6’9″ with wingspans that push 7-feet — that went off Saturday night for a combined 48 points, 27 (9-of-12) of which came from three-point land.

No matter how the Los Angeles Lakers try to play, the Timberwolves appear to have answers and that has to be troubling for those hoping to see a playoff run in Hollywood.

Anthony Edwards showed up when needed, but…

Let’s touch on Anthony Edwards, who had a very up-and-down game one. He started out slow, and just a reminder from earlier in this article, the Minnesota Timberwolves took control of this game while he was on the bench in the second quarter.

He went 8-of-22 on the night, and scored 22 points, coming in behind both McDaniels and Reid. On Saturday, the Wolves didn’t really need Ant to be great because everyone around him played so well. And he helped everywhere else, too, grabbing 9 rebounds and dealing 8 assists.

However, the Wolves cannot expect that to continue all series. Anthony Edwards will have to be far-and-away their best player in game two, if Minnesota is going to fly back to the Twin Cities with a 2-0 lead in this series.

Related: LA Lakers Legend Scared of the Minnesota Timberwolves for One Reason…

Still, when the Timberwolves needed a big shot — like when the Lakers went on a mini-run to end the third quarter and start the fourth — Ant was there to hit to answer the call. This, after leaving the game with cramps in the third, and being listed as “questionable” to return.

But with just under 11 minutes remaining, Edwards arrived at the scorer’s table. Immediately upon re-entry, he put a stop to the Lakers run, scoring five of the Wolves’ next 8 points and assisting on the other three.

From then on out, the game was mostly out of reach. But in game two, the Minnesota Timberwolves will need Anthony Edwards to be ready to dominate from the tip.

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