LOS ANGELES — Last season, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ defense, which helped them to their second straight Western Conference finals, was very good, ranked sixth in the league with a 110.8 rating. But it wasn’t the level of nasty that it was two years ago, when the Wolves were No. 1 by a mile and dethroned defending champion Denver in the second round.
They entered the season with a stated goal of rediscovering their edge on that end of the court. Through two games, the Wolves’ defense has shown up for exactly one quarter, the last one in Portland on Wednesday. Luka Dončić and the Los Angeles Lakers absolutely shredded the Wolves on Friday night, a performance that hearkened back to Dončić’s evisceration of Minnesota in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals in 2024.
Dončić scored 49 points on 14-for-23 shooting, and he laughed and danced and trash-talked the Wolves the whole way through a 128-110 victory. The Lakers shot 59 percent as a team, got to the line for 32 free throws against the slow-footed Wolves and sent them back for their home opener with egg on their faces.
“That was embarrassing,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “I think everybody in here knows it. We have a higher standard than that. It’s Game 2, but we’ll be ready to go on Sunday for sure.”
Anthony Edwards had a strong offensive night with 31 points on 11-for-19 shooting, and Julius Randle was also really good with 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists. When the two stars are clicking like that on offense, there is no way the Wolves should ever be as out of a game as they were for almost the entirety of the second half against the Lakers.
Anthony Edwards had a good night on offense, but the Wolves’ defense was lacking. (Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)
The Wolves trailed by as many as 25 points in the game and spent most of it running around haplessly chasing the Lakers and not dictating any of the action. Los Angeles had 26 assists, many of which were racked up thanks to wild closeouts in which the Wolves defender would fly by a shooter, or inattentiveness that would lead to wide-open layups and dunks.
Jaden McDaniels couldn’t do anything defensively against Dončić. Rudy Gobert was a complete non-factor (two points on 1-for-2 shooting with seven rebounds and zero blocked shots) in his first game back in this building since putting up 27 points and 24 rebounds to eliminate the Lakers in last season’s playoffs. Edwards didn’t provide any resistance defensively either and declined to comment after the game.
“Could feel that sometimes that our spirit wasn’t always there,” Gobert said. “Everyone was getting into their own head, a little bit of frustration. … We can’t be that if we want to be a championship team. We got to be more resilient, a little bit more tougher mentally, and we will.”
It was doubly disappointing considering they were coming off an opener in which the Portland Trail Blazers put up 95 points in the first three quarters. The Wolves buckled down in the fourth, holding Portland to 19 points and 21 percent shooting. But the Blazers are a young team that can be expected to crack under pressure.
The Lakers have plenty of limitations, especially with LeBron James not playing to start the season. But they are a veteran team with talented scorers, and they didn’t let the Wolves off the hook. They also played with a chip on their shoulder after the Wolves flattened them in a 4-1 first-round victory in the playoffs last year. The physicality and tenacity that the Timberwolves showed in that series were nowhere to be found on Friday night, and it has been glaringly absent for most of the first two games.
“The defense is certainly not where it needs to be,” coach Chris Finch said. “Not dictating at the point of the attack. There’s no aggressiveness to it all. The fly-around mentality behind it is just not quite there.”
Dončić and the Lakers throttled the Wolves in the first half, shooting a cool 60 percent from the field and racking up a 144.7 offensive rating. Dončić had the Wolves wrapped around his finger, getting to every spot he wanted and tormenting McDaniels with pump fakes and sleight of hand.
McDaniels grew frustrated as the half moved along, and that’s when Dončić took advantage. He got McDaniels up in the air with a shot fake and then drew a foul on a 3-pointer to cap his first half with 32 points on 9-for-14 shooting.
“Luka was making some tough shots,” McDaniels said. “That’s what happens when you play people like that. You just can’t let the other people affect the game. We’ve got to treat it like we did in the playoffs.”
The Wolves are familiar with a Luka heater. They’re not the first team to fall victim to his incredible shot-making. Where this one got away from Minnesota was in the inability to stop anyone else on the Lakers. Austin Reaves had 25 points on 9-for-15 shooting. Rui Hachimura had 23 on 10 for 13.
Some of it was just great shot-making by the Lakers. There will be nights like that in a long NBA season. But the lack of intensity while playing a marquee opponent on national television was disappointing.
“Honestly, it was just effort,” DiVincenzo said. “Collectively, we know we didn’t bring the effort. A team that we knocked out of the playoffs is going to come in with more hunger. … They wanted to rip your head off. I think we just didn’t match their energy tonight.”
They had a glimmer of hope in the third quarter when Dončić went to the bench for the final four minutes because he had four fouls. Los Angeles led by nine at the time, but Minnesota couldn’t do anything defensively against the Luka-less lineup and went into the fourth down 14.
Over the last two years, during games like this, when the energy and effort were lacking, Nickeil Alexander-Walker was often the player to come off the bench and spark the team. NAW is in Atlanta now, an absence made more glaring by the considerable struggles of point guard Mike Conley, who picked up four fouls and went 0 for 3 with two turnovers in nine minutes. Finch has been reluctant to play second-year guard Rob Dillingham because of the concerns on defense, going with Bones Hyland instead.
Dillingham finally entered the game midway through the fourth quarter, but he lasted just 59 seconds before taking an elbow to the face that fractured his nose and sent blood pouring onto the court.
Another test of this soft defense awaits in the home opener on Sunday, when the Indiana Pacers will come in ready to blow the Wolves’ doors off in transition and have an even more relentless half-court offense than what the Lakers showed them.
“We’ve got to get back to buying into everybody guarding,” Finch said.
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