{"id":34,"date":"2025-04-21T11:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/?p=34"},"modified":"2025-04-21T11:00:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T11:00:05","slug":"nba-playoffs-los-angeles-lakers-succumb-to-heavy-defeat-against-minnesota-timberwolves-in-game-1-despite-late-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/21\/nba-playoffs-los-angeles-lakers-succumb-to-heavy-defeat-against-minnesota-timberwolves-in-game-1-despite-late-comeback\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Playoffs: Los Angeles Lakers succumb to heavy defeat against Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 despite late comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/04\/19\/sport\/nba-play-in-tournament-finale-spt\/index.html\">NBA<\/a>&nbsp;Playoffs officially tipped off with a sizzling four-game slate on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the night\u2019s finale, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/04\/19\/sport\/luka-doncic-cracked-phone-trade-spt-intl\/index.html\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>&nbsp;fell to a heavy defeat in front of their home fans, losing 117-95 to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/03\/30\/sport\/timberwolves-pistons-nba-ejections-spt\/index.html\">Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>&nbsp;in Game 1 of their Western Conference best-of-seven series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Lakers hit the halftime break reeling, down 59-48, and things only got worse as Minnesota jumped out with an 11-0 run in the third to extend the lead to 22. Anthony Edwards, who finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and nine assists, torched the Lakers with a 3-pointer that stretched the lead to 27 points with just over five minutes left in the third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the Lakers, sparked by their new superstar Luka Don\u010di\u0107, refused to go quietly. A 13-3 run clawed them back into the fight, and Don\u010di\u0107 sent the crowd at Crypto.Com Arena into a frenzy, drilling a halfcourt buzzer-beater at the end of the third to cut the deficit to 94-78.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Minnesota weathered the Lakers surge, countering with a 12-2 run in the fourth quarter to shut down any hopes of a comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jaden McDaniels led the Wolves\u2019 charge with 25 points and nine rebounds, while Julius Randle added 16 points. The Timberwolves knocked down a franchise playoff-record 21 3-pointers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The&nbsp;NBA&nbsp;Playoffs officially tipped off with a sizzling four-game slate on Saturday. In the night\u2019s finale, the&nbsp;Los Angeles Lakers&nbsp;fell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-match-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartpredicts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}