On April 8, Beijing time, the NBA game continued, and the West ushered in a key game, the Lakers vs. the Timberwolves, unfortunately, the 39-year-old James missed the back-to-back games, and this game is very important, but the Lakers' plan is to let Lao Zhan rest. After the Kings defeated the Nets, the Lakers moved to No. 9 in the standings, and if they win today, they will overtake the Kings again. The Timberwolves are competing with the Nuggets for No. 1 in the West, and they will definitely not release water, so if the Lakers want to win, Brother Bush must beat Gobert. Lakers starting lineup: Russell + Dinwiddie + Reaves + Hachimura + thick eyebrows, Timberwolves starting lineup: Edwards + Conley + McDaniels + Reed + Gobert.
In the first quarter, the Lakers hit 37-33 in a single quarter, and the offensive performance was very good, and don't expect the Lakers to play tough defense, after all, there are almost no people who are good at defense except for the thick eyebrows among the starters. In the second quarter, the Timberwolves were still a stronger team, and after a wave of 46-27, they completely collapsed the Lakers, and at halftime, the Lakers were already 15 points behind. To add insult to injury, Brother Bushy was injured in the second quarter and will not return in this game, and the Lakers lack an interior defensive gate, and the collapse is also expected.
In the third quarter, the Lakers lacked two super scoring points James and thick eyebrows on the offensive end, and they could only make up for it by defense, and the main players such as Reaves and Hachimura were very hard, and it could be seen that they hoped to win the game, and the Lakers played 28-23, narrowing the difference to 7 points, and there was still some suspense in the game. In the fourth quarter, the point difference hovered around 15 points, and the Lakers really tried their best, but the lack of thick eyebrows really couldn't beat the Timberwolves, and in the end, the Timberwolves defeated the Lakers 127-117 and ranked first in the West again with a record of 54-24. The Lakers' four-game winning streak came to an end, and this loss also hurt the team's vitality, and all the advantages accumulated before were gone.
The Lakers' thick eyebrows only played 12 minutes, with 4 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals, Russell had 15 points, 7 rebounds and 11 assists, Reaves had 14 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, Dinwiddie had 18 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, Hachimura slashed 30 points and 6 rebounds, playing the best game of the season, the Lakers starters performed well, and the substitute Hayes also cut 19 points, 10 rebounds and 5 steals. The Timberwolves' Edwards slashed 26 points and 8 assists, Gobert had 18 points, 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, and Reed became a wonder soldier, cutting 31 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals and 1 block.
After the Lakers lost to the Timberwolves, the four-game winning streak ended, and after this game, the Lakers suffered a triple blow. First, Brother Thick Mei is injured, I hope to return to the arena as soon as possible, it shouldn't be very serious. Second, the Lakers were overtaken by the Kings and are now in 9th place, 0.5 wins behind the Kings. Third, the Lakers are only 1.5 wins ahead of the Warriors, and the ninth place is in jeopardy.
If the current standings go by, the Lakers and Warriors will meet in the play-in tournament, which is a situation that neither team wants to see. The Lakers' opponents in the next three games are the Warriors, Grizzlies and Pelicans, while the Kings' opponents are the Thunder, Pelicans, Suns and Trail Blazers.