Jaden McDaniels collected 25 points with nine rebounds and Anthony Edwards added 22 points, eight rebounds and nine assists as the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves rolled to a 117-95 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in the opener of a first-round Western Conference playoff series on Saturday.
Naz Reid scored 23 points and Julius Randle had 16 as the No. 6 seed Timberwolves improved to 5-0 in first-round games over the past two seasons.
Minnesota shot 51.2 percent from the floor and went 21 of 42 from 3-point range while continuing its success from the end of the regular season, when it closed with a 17-4 record.
“It was just going out and playing with confidence,” McDaniels said on the ABC broadcast. “I know all my teammates trust me. (Edwards) always tells me, shoot the ball no matter what, miss or make, and that’s what I did tonight.”
On an otherwise ideal night, the Timberwolves saw Edwards depart to the locker room late in the third quarter with an apparent left leg injury before he returned in the fourth quarter. Reid was also injured late in the game.
Luka Doncic scored 37 points with eight rebounds, and LeBron James added 19 points for the No. 3 seed Lakers, who shot 39.8 percent from the floor and lacked the energy present after Doncic was acquired in a February trade from the Dallas Mavericks.
Austin Reaves had 16 points after a slow start for Los Angeles, which was outscored 25-6 on fast-break points and 43-13 in bench points.
Game 2 in the series is set for Tuesday at Los Angeles.
The Lakers owned the first quarter, taking a 28-21 lead before the Timberwolves took charge in the second quarter to take a 59-48 lead into halftime. Minnesota shot 54.2 percent in the second quarter while scoring 38 points.
The Timberwolves punctuated their second-quarter domination when Donte DiVincenzo made a 30-foot 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer.
“Obviously we need to do a better job of controlling the controllables and I don’t think we did a good enough job … once they blitzed us in that second quarter,” said James. “The 3-point shooting, we know they have a lot of lasers, a lot of guys who can shoot from the perimeter so we have to do a better job of closing out on bodies.”
The Timberwolves continued their push into the second half, opening on an 11-0 run to take a 70-48 lead less than two minutes into the third quarter.
Minnesota had an 88-64 lead when Edwards landed hard after a drive to the basket and walked back to the locker room with 2:58 left in the third quarter. He checked back into the game with 10:57 remaining in the game.
Reid departed with 9:26 remaining after taking an inadvertent elbow to the head from the Lakers’ Jarred Vanderbilt.
–Field Level Media
