Five reasons why the Timberwolves beat the Lakers in five games

Not only did the Timberwolves upset the third-seeded Lakers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs but they did so handily Minnesota downed Los Angeles in just five games beating the Lakers twice on their home floor How Minnesota so drastically outperform the prognosticators expectations Five are five reasons why the Timberwolves beat the Lakers with relative ease Anthony Edwards There are numerous approaches in which Edwards positively impacted this series for Minnesota The majority of notable was in Event in which Edwards essentially stole a contest in which the Wolves were largely out-played with various sensational shot making at the start of the fourth quarter to get the Wolves back into the event and prolific playmaking at the end to win it He scored points to go with nine rebounds and six assists Sunday in the match that proved to be what broke the Lakers spirits But even on the nights where Edwards stat lines were less gaudy his impact remained profound The Lakers had no matchup for the all-star guard meaning they had to build their entire defensive scheme around stopping him Their gap-heavy switch-heavy approach designed to limit his runway to the paint freed up Minnesota s other players to shine It left Minnesota s shooters open on the perimeter Rudy Gobert standing by himself near the rim and created mismatches that Julius Randle was able to exploit on a nightly basis Edwards offensive prowess put the Lakers in a bind from which they could not escape When you play next to him it made the meeting a lot easier Randle revealed Because they throw two or three people at him so you just got to be willing to move and be in the right spaces on the floor You got to be able to take advantage of that There s not a person in the world that can guard him one on one So teams are throwing everything at him I reliably tell him Go be great But if you need me I m right there for us I just try to make the tournament easy on him by attacking and putting pressure on the defense Size matters Minnesota eviscerated the Lakers on the glass by the end of the series culminating in a Encounter in which Minnesota out-rebounded Los Angeles - The Lakers best lineup LeBron James Luka Doncic Rui Hachimura Austin Reaves and Dorian Finney-Smith included five guards wings and zero centers That unit features five guys who can space the floor and play off the catch offensively But while it had length it did not have size So there was no one to box out Gobert on the interior And there was no one to deter Edwards Randle or Jaden McDaniels from attacking the paint Small ball is great in doses but Minnesota proved to have the size to punish the Lakers approach Minnesota s primary advantages throughout the series were that it was bigger faster and stronger than Los Angeles Volume Those physical advantages led to Minnesota not only out-rebounding the Lakers but also turning Los Angeles over more frequently than the Wolves gave the ball up themselves That all meant Minnesota got more looks at the rim than the Lakers Minnesota took shots to the Lakers in the series The Wolves had more shot attempts than Los Angeles in every single event The Wolves also attempted more free throws than the Lakers The more shots you get up the better chance you have of out-scoring your opponent The shear volume of attempts allowed Minnesota to win games even though the Lakers generated higher numbers of open and wide open looks in Games - and it allowed the Wolves to overcome a dreadful shooting performance Wednesday in which they went for from beyond the arc Roster Versatility Lakers coach J J Redick noted there s a tradeoff to every lineup decision he could make in the series The Lakers struggled mightily to tally when their lone center Jaxson Hayes was on the floor against Minnesota So Los Angeles ditched Hayes in favor of small ball for all of Contest and the Lakers were promptly destroyed on the glass Frankly given Los Angeles lack of depth Redick didn t have much in the way of available options Yes the Lakers clearly needed a center on the court to limit the impact of Gobert on Wednesday But Hayes isn t a good enough contestant to receive extended run in a playoff event Timberwolves coach Chris Finch meanwhile has a wide range of buttons at his disposal to press He did so masterfully in the series In Games and when it was clear Minnesota needed offense and floor spacing down the stretch Finch turned to Naz Reid and Donte DiVincenzo On Wednesday when the Lakers went small Finch was able to lean into Gobert for the big man s interior dominance When Minnesota needed a jolt of potential Finch turned to rookie wing Terence Shannon Jr So often depth is thought of as a mode of spreading out minutes to keep players fresh But just as essential in the playoffs is the optionality it gives a gang to attack an opponent s weaknesses and mitigate strengths For every challenge an opponent presents this postseason Minnesota figures to have answers somewhere across its eight-man rotation of starter-quality players I think that s what makes this unit special is you have so several guys that can start games and that can finish the contest DiVincenzo noted How numerous coaches in the NBA have that luxury Defense wins The Lakers trotted out selected talented five-man scoring lineups in this series But the effectiveness of those groupings was limited by Minnesota s number of quality defenders When push came to shove in the fourth quarters of every competition Minnesota s defense tightened the screws and suffocated the Lakers offense Los Angeles shot no better than from the floor in the final frame of any event scoring no more than points in a fourth quarter all series And on the flip side the Lakers didn t have nearly enough defenders on the floor at any one time to match up with Minnesota It took little effort from Minnesota s offensively to generate a tasty mismatch that Edwards Randle or even McDaniels could exploit off the bounce to either count or collapse the Los Angeles defense Two-way players are at a premium come playoff time for matchup purposes and Minnesota s roster is flush as plenty of as you ll find across the association