On April 8th, Beijing time, the NBA regular season ushered in the focus of the battle, the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Western rival Timberwolves, the Lakers have been in very good shape recently, after the last big win over the Cavaliers, they have been successfully promoted to the top eight in the West, before the start of this game due to the Suns lost, if the Lakers win, then there are only 0.5 wins left from the Western play-off zone, it is worth noting that James was absent due to illness, thick eyebrows were injured, and finally after four quarters of competition Lakers 117:127 Timberwolves
Both starters
Lakers: Rivers, Hachimura, Davis, Dinwiddie, Russell
Timberwolves: McDaniels, Reed, Gobert, Edwards, Conley
Game recap
In the first quarter of the game, Russell took the lead in scoring, Hachimura made a layup, the Lakers started 4-0, and then the Timberwolves also scored four points in a row, the two sides were tied, and then the two sides also played back and forth to take the lead, and then Hachimura and Russell each hit three points The Lakers led the Timberwolves 20-13, but fortunately, Edwards stood up in time and scored 5 points in a row to stop the decline of the Timberwolves, and finally beat the Lakers 37-33 Timberwolves in the first quarter.
In the second quarter of the game, Reed hit a three-point shot to chase the score to 36-37 behind the Lakers by 1 point, Russell made two free throws, and then both sides scored, and the two sides tied at 55, but the Timberwolves suddenly made a force, McDaniels scored 2+1, Gobert made a rebound, Reed received the ball and hit a three-point shot, stretching the score to 69-57, the Timberwolves led by 12 points, directly stopped the Lakers, and after the timeout came back, Hayes scored 2+ under the basket1, but Reed responded with three points in time, and finally the second quarter ended, the Lakers 27-46 Timberwolves, losing by 19 points in a single quarter, trailing the Timberwolves by 15 points to end the first half.
In the third quarter of the game, Gobert opened with a dunk, directly pulling the score to 81-64, Reed followed by a three-point shot, the score was stretched to 20 points, fortunately, Hachimura responded with three points in time, and then Dinwiddie hit both free throws, again controlled the score within 15 points, and then three minutes both sides scored, playing back and forth, and then halfway through the third quarter, the Lakers suddenly broke out, played a wave of 17-4 climax, chasing the score to 81-88 only 7 points behind, fortunately, Edwards stood up and scored for the Timberwolves to stop loss, and finally at the end of the third quarter, the Lakers played 28-23 in a single quarter to recover 5 points。
In the fourth quarter, Walker scored first, and then Lee Kyle threw a shot, Hachimura hit two free throws, the Lakers 93-106 Timberwolves, and with Gobert scoring a dunk, the Timberwolves opened the score again. In the end, the Timberwolves defeated the Lakers 127-117 in the fourth quarter
Lakers player performance
Davis (not substandard)
In the absence of James today, thick eyebrows did not carry the team's offense in the first half, and was accidentally injured by Li Kaier in the first half, causing thick eyebrows to leave the court, and scored 4 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists on 2-of-6 shooting in the half, and failed to return in the second half.
Russell (Pass)
Russell completely lost himself today after breaking out for many games in a row, only 2 of 10 shots in the first half, got 6 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists, and the third quarter still felt bad, 1 of 5 in the single quarter, 5 of 19 shots in the whole game, 15 points, 1 rebound and 11 assists, plus or minus -3
Rivers (not up to standard)
Xiaoli's performance in the first half today was still decent, shooting 3 of 8 in the half, 1 of 3 three-point shots, getting 10 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists, the third quarter felt average, 1 of 3 in a single quarter, 4 of 14 shots in the whole game, 14 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, plus or minus -17
Hachimura (Excellent)
Hachimura was efficient in the first half, shooting inside and out, shooting 5-of-8 in the half, scoring 13 points and 3 rebounds. In the third quarter, he still maintained a good hand and scored 5 points again, scoring 30 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assist on 1-of-17 shooting in the game, with a plus/minus of +1
Dinwiddie (Excellent)
Replaced James into the starting line today, broke out again, scored 16 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists in 4 of 4 in the half, fully supported the Lakers' offense, and generally only scored 2 points in the third quarter, and shot 4 of 7 in the game, got 18 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, plus or minus -2
Hayes (Excellent)
After the thick eyebrows left the court due to injury, Hayes still made up for the Lakers' lack of interior in time in the half, shooting 4 of 5, getting 9 points, 4 rebounds and 0 assists, and contributed 9 points and 4 rebounds again in the third quarter, and scored 19 points, 10 rebounds and 0 assists on 8 of 9 shots in the game, with a plus/minus of -14
Prince (not substandard)
The half-time performance was average, only 4 points and 1 rebound on 1-of-3 shooting, basically invisible on the offensive end, and the performance in the second half was still not good, with 6 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists on 2-of-5 shooting in the game, with a plus/minus of -22
Reddish (Pass)
He had 2 points and 2 rebounds on 1-of-3 shooting in the half, and was conscientious on the defensive end in the 8 minutes he played, with 5 points, 2 rebounds and 0 assists on 2-of-5 shooting in the game, with a plus/minus of -14
Christie (not up to standard)
In the first half, he played too few opportunities and didn't score, and he scored 2 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist on 0-of-1 shooting in the whole game, with a plus/minus of -1
Summary: In such a critical game today, Lao Zhan was absent due to injury, and thick eyebrows also retired from injury after playing a game, resulting in the Lakers being pulled away by the Timberwolves, and in less than 4 games left, every team needs to step up and strive to win a good spot in the playoffs.