Lakers survive Timberwolves in play-in, set up first-round date with Grizzlies

The Los Angeles Lakers have qualified for the playoffs for the third time in four seasons after narrowly outlasting an undermanned Minnesota Timberwolves squad 108-102 in overtime in their seven-versus-eight play-in matchup at Crypto.com Arena.

The Lakers were led by LeBron James’ 30 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists on 12-of-21 shooting whilst Anthony Davis added 24 points, 15 rebounds, and four assists of his own.

Dennis Schröder proved a huge boost off the bench finishing with 21 points, including 3-of-4 from three and 8-of-8 from the stripe, to go along with a game-high +22.

Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura each added a dozen whilst Jarred Vanderbilt proved a menace defensively helping restrict Anthony Edwards to just nine points on 3-of-17 shooting.

D’Angelo Russell had a night to forget with the 27-year-old finishing with just two points on 1-of-9 shooting in 24 minutes.

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Minnesota raced out to a six-point lead at the end of the first quarter and extended their lead to double-digits heading into half-time.

With the lead ballooning out to 15 mid-way through the third, the Timberwolves looked poised to go one with things before the Lakers tightened the screws defensively down the stretch.

The home team went on a 19-6 run to claw their way back into it as Minnesota suffered through a close to six-minute scoring drought.

With seconds on the clock and the game tied, James embarked on a right-side drive and kicked the ball to an open Schröder in the left corner.

Schröder nailed the three in front of the Timberwolves bench to give the Lakers their first lead of the second half with 1.4 seconds remaining, however, the theatrics were far from over.

Minnesota called timeout and advanced it; veteran guard Mike Conley caught a cross-court inbound and tossed up a three-point pray from the right corner which missed but drew a foolish foul from Davis with 0.1 seconds to play.

Conley iced all three free throws to send the game to overtime.

The overtime period belonged to the Lakers, despite several sloppy turnovers, as they punched their ticket to the playoffs.

The Lakers finished +8 on the offensive glass and +18 in the paint but committed 20 turnovers and allowed Minnesota to hit on 16 of their 41 three-pointers.

The Timberwolves were led by Karl-Anthony Towns’ 24 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and three blocks.

Towns, however, struggled through foul trouble throughout much of the second half and scored his final points of the game with 2:39 remaining in the third quarter.

With Rudy Gobert, Jaden McDaniels, and Naz Reid all missing, Conley stepped up in a big way for head coach Chris Finch putting up 23 points, four assists, and three steals on 6-of-8 from three.

Taurean Prince enjoyed a strong outing as well adding 14 points and three steals on 4-of-7 from three whilst Nickeil Alexander-Walker added 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting off the bench.

Edwards had an extremely tough night hitting on just three of his 17 field goal attempts and zero of his nine three-point attempts.

It was just the fourth time this season he has been held to single-digit points and the sixth time he had missed all of his three-point attempts.

The Timberwolves will face the winner of New Orleans versus Oklahoma City on Saturday with the winner then advancing to face Denver in the first round of the playoffs.

The Lakers, meanwhile, will now face the Grizzlies in a best-of-seven series beginning on Monday morning.

The Grizzlies finished with the second-best record in the Western Conference but will be without frontcourt options Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke for the remainder of the playoffs.

Los Angeles enter the series as outsiders despite winning their season series against Memphis 2-1; they have never faced each other in the NBA playoffs.

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