The Lakers were able to take advantage of the first of their two opportunities and already have a place in the ‘playoffs’ after defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-102 at the Crypto.com Arena. A great LeBron James led the comeback of the Los Angeles team with a triple double of 30 points and 10 rebounds, and returned the franchise to the ‘playoffs’ after the failure of last season.
After an irregular campaign, the Lakers confirmed their upward trend and, despite suffering until the last moment and achieving victory in overtime, they will meet the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the ‘playoffs’ that will begin on Sunday in Tennessee .
In addition to his 30 points and 10 rebounds, James also added six assists and gave a great pass to Germany’s Dennis Schroeder, whose three-pointer could have sealed the game with 1.4 seconds remaining. However, the Wolves forced overtime with three free kicks by Mike Conley (23 total with six of eight on three-pointers) due to a naive foul by Anthony Davis (24 points and 15 rebounds).
Without the French center Rudy Gobert, suspended for one game by his team for punching his teammate Kyle Anderson in the last game of the regular season, the Wolves came close to achieving the feat in Los Angeles, but a bad closing game deprived them of reaching the objective. The 24 turnovers sentenced the Minnesota team, despite the 24 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and three blocks by Karl Anthony Towns.
The Timberwolves will have another chance, at home, against the winner of the New Orleans Pelicans-Oklahoma City Thunder to advance to the ‘playoffs’ as eighth. In the case of achieving victory, they would meet the Denver Nuggets in the first round.
The Atlanta Hawks, for their part, secured their place in the ‘playoffs’ after beating the Miami Heat 105-116 in a game marked by rebounding statistics with 68 catches for Quin Snyder’s team, 22 of them in attack.
Clint Capela was the one who dominated the most under the hoops, with 21 total rebounds, eight of them on offense. In scoring, up to seven Hawks players signed double figures and Trae Young contributed 25 points in total. Another determining factor was the contribution of the four relief men from the Atlanta team, who accumulated 53 points, each adding more than 10. A huge contrast compared to Miami, whose most outstanding performance was that of Kyle Lowry with 33 points. .
The Heat must play their last chance this coming Friday at the Kaseya Center against the winner of the duel between the Toronto Raptors and the Chicago Bulls.
Tomorrow the remaining play-in matches of the Eastern Conference (Toronto Raptors – Chicago Bulls) and the Western Conference (New Orleans Pelicans – Oklahoma City Thunder) will be played. The winners of both meetings will face the Miami Heat and the Minnesota Timberwolves respectively.
