Lakers (0-1) vs. Timberwolves (1-0) | Game 2 of 25-26 Season<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcc5 Date: Tuesday, Oct. 24<\/p>\n
\u23f0 Tip-off: 7:00 p.m. PT<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udccd Location: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcfa TV: Amazon Prime Video<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcfb Radio: SPN LA 710\/1330 KWKW<\/p>\n
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Game Preview<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Lakers are 0-1 after a 119-109 season opener loss to the Golden State Warriors and now have the Minnesota Timberwolves up next in a playoff rematch.<\/p>\n
The Timberwolves are coming off a road win, 118-114, in their season opener against the Trail Blazers behind an MVP-like showing from 24-year-old Anthony Edwards, who finished with 41 points on 50% shooting from 3-point range and from the floor.<\/p>\n
Luka Don\u010di\u0107 is also coming off an MVP performance, as he finished with the most points he\u2019s ever had in a season opener with one assist shy of a triple-double: 43 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists.<\/p>\n
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Despite an underwhelming and slow third-quarter start, a trend that the Lakers struggled with last season and during the preseason, coach JJ Redick acknowledged the team’s intent was really good.<\/p>\n
He and the rest of the coaching staff used the last two days of practice to clean up their opening night mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe things we cleaned up in film and the things we cleaned up in practice were very simple,\u201d Redick said Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Redick noted the Lakers struggled in their defensive rotation, defending shooters, especially the lasers, in transition, and closing out against Golden State, making it an emphasis to correct and be clearer in what they need to fix in this week’s practice.<\/p>\n
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“Sometimes as a coach you say things and you drill things, but you realize then that if it’s not showing up in the game, then it’s not clear,” Redick said. “We just got to continue to reinforce things on a clear basis.”<\/p>\n
What to Watch For<\/p>\n
Cleaning up third-quarter struggles: The Lakers were outscored 35\u201325 and gave up an 18\u20134 run to start the second half in their opener. They\u2019ll need a sharper effort coming out of halftime to avoid another momentum swing and playing catch-up in the fourth.<\/p>\n
Containing Anthony Edwards: Edwards is coming off a great outing in Minnesota\u2019s opener and will be a major focus for the Lakers\u2019 perimeter defense.<\/p>\n
Limiting turnovers: Los Angeles turned the ball over 20 times on Opening Night \u2014 an area they must tighten up to give themselves more touches on offense.<\/p>\n
Improving shooting efficiency: The Lakers shot just 25% from three and 60% from the free-throw line on 28 attempts against Golden State.<\/p>\n
Starting Unit<\/p>\n
With LeBron James still sidelined, Gabe Vincent was the starting piece against the Warriors. Redick said the starting unit is still not set with their star out and it could change from game to game depending on the matchup.<\/p>\n
The Timberwolves have Donte DiVincenzo, who stands at 6\u20194, as their starting point guard, with last year’s starting point guard, Mike Conley, coming off the bench. So Vincent could be coming off the bench because of this particular matchup.<\/p>\n
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Injury Report<\/p>\n
The Lakers’ injury report remains the same. James (sciatica) and Maxi Kleber (oblique strain) remain sidelined for the next couple of weeks to be reevaluated for their injuries.<\/p>\n
Rookie Adou Thiero is still working his way back from a knee injury and will also be reevaluated in a couple of weeks. His burst and athleticism were eye-opening in practice this week in his individual drills, as it\u2019s one of the traits this current Lakers team lacks and needs.<\/p>\n
For the Timberwolves, their injury report is a clean sheet.<\/p>\n
(Updated as of Tuesday morning; subject to change before tip-off.)<\/p>\n
What\u2019s Next<\/p>\n
Following Friday\u2019s matchup, the Lakers will travel to Sacramento for their first road game of the season. They return home for the following contest against the Trail Blazers on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lakers (0-1) vs. Timberwolves (1-0) | Game 2 of 25-26 Season \ud83d\udcc5 Date: Tuesday, Oct. 24 \u23f0 Tip-off:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[33867,31513,11654,19039,56232,27128,2243,66655,3013,3031,1055,3014,31764,136088,355,16592,71959,99,6427,20396],"class_list":["post-249418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-adou-thiero","tag-anthony-edwards","tag-austin-reaves","tag-brandin-podziemski","tag-donte-divincenzo","tag-gabe-vincent","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-jj-redick","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-maxi-kleber","tag-mike-conley","tag-nba","tag-sacramento","tag-season-opener","tag-sports","tag-timberwolves","tag-trail-blazers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}