The Minnesota Timberwolves are now backed against a wall with nowhere else to go after losing 109-102 in overtime to the Los Angeles Lakes in Tuesday night’s Western Conference play-in tournament game Tuesday night.
After a dramatic finish to the fourth quarter, the Lakers outscored Minnesota 10-4 in overtime to secure the No. 7 seed in the playoffs and a first-round playoff series date with the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday.
The Timberwolves are faced with an elimination game Friday in Minneapolis against the winner of Wednesday’s game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Oklahoma City Thunder. The winner of Friday’s play-in game will receive the No. 8 seed and face the top-seeded Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.
The end of regulation was dramatic as LeBron James found an open Dennis Schroder for a 3-pointer to go ahead 98-95 with 1.7 seconds to play. Desperate, Mike Conley heaved up a corner 3 and missed, but he was bumped by Anthony Davis with 0.1 seconds to play, giving him three free throws and a chance to force overtime.
- Conley’s first free throw: good
- Conley’s second free throw: good
- Conley’s third free throw: good
LeBron’s 3 with 2:02 to go tied the game 95-95, completing a 15-point comeback. Still tied 95-95 with under 35 seconds to play, Taurean Prince stole L.A.’s inbound pass out of a timeout only to have Kyle Anderson dribble the ball off his foot for an over-and-back violation, setting the Lakers up for a chance to win the game with 21.7 seconds remaining.
Anthony Edwards, needing a big game with Rudy Gobert suspended and Jaden McDaniels out with a broken hand, had one of his worst games of the season. He shot 3-of-16 overall, including 0-of-8 from 3-point range, and finished with just nine points. The Lakers held Edwards to 11 points on 4-of-16 shooting just 12 days earlier.
“That’s a good-ass team over there in Minnesota, no matter who they had in the lineup,” LeBron told TNT after the game.
Minnesota built its lead to 11 points at the half and went up by as many as 15 points in with 4:27 left in the third quarter before the Lakers began to chip away, finishing the third on a 14-6 run to cut the deficit to 86-79 and eventually tying the game late in the fourth on LeBron’s 3.
Karl-Anthony Towns, who dominated the first half, picked up his fifth foul with 9:21 left in the fourth quarter. Instead of leaving him on the bench, head coach Chris Finch put Towns back in the game with 7:35 to go and he didn’t foul out and helped bring some balance back to an offense that shot 3-of-14 in the fourth quarter – though Minnesota didn’t score for a full six minutes and 0.9 seconds before Conley’s clutch free throws.
Towns finished with 24 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Conley scored 23 for Minnesota and hit 6-of-8 from deep. Kyle Anderson finished with 12 points, 13 assists, four blocks and four steals.
LeBron led the Lakers with 30 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and Anthony Davis had 23 points and 15 rebounds.
