The first of five home games for the Lakers kicked off Friday night with a meaningful game against the talented and athletic Minnesota Timberwolves, one of three LA teams in the hunt for a play-in spot.
The Lakers will play that stretch without LeBron James, who will be re-evaluated in three weeks after the forward was revealed Thursday to have a right shin injury. The Lakers also lacked starting point guard D’Angelo Russell, who missed his fourth straight game with a sprained right ankle.
But the Lakers brought back Anthony Davis after he missed Wednesday night’s game in Oklahoma City as the team took precautions with his right foot stress injury.
Davis did his part with 38 points on 12-of-22 shooting, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Lakers from losing 110-102 to the Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena.
Davis only had five rebounds and turned the ball over six times.
Rudy Gobert had a double-double with 22 points and 14 rebounds and Anthony Edwards had 19 points for the Timberwolves (33-32).
But as the game got close, it was Michael Conley who stood out for the Timberwolves.
The Lakers cut a 14-point lead to three points in the fourth quarter.
But Conley made a three-pointer and a right-hander to stop the Lakers’ rally.
“They’re also fighting for their lives to get into the postseason,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said of the Timberwolves, who have moved up to seventh in the West. “And they had that urgency, and we didn’t. We have to do something about that and we talked about it after the game.”
The Lakers (30-34) remained eleventh in the Western Conference after the loss, one game behind the New Orleans Pelicans.
“Ultimately, the result is what it is,” Davis said. “We need to get back to what we need to do, control what we can control, which is winning basketball games.”
Ham said they know where they stand in the race for a top 10 spot in the west.
“I tell the team: ‘First we have to mind our own business.’ “It doesn’t matter what the scoreboard says or we let games go by or don’t do what we need to do to make sure we can take an opportunity,” said Ham. “Well, that’s the most important thing for us. We just need to focus on our business and everything else will fall into place.”
It won’t be easy for the Lakers without James.
He began his rehab and did whatever it took to get back into the Lakers’ lineup to help them in their quest to at least make the playoffs.
“There is no update and his situation is as it is,” Ham said. “And without him and his game we wouldn’t have been this close to having a chance to improve in the future. I just want him to take his time and align with the medical staff and do what he needs to do to get back as soon as possible …We must act, all of us.”
The Lakers will get Russell back before James, but when that will happen remains uncertain.
Russell started some “playgroups” on Friday, Ham said, and is still working back.
“We don’t want a guy who doesn’t play an NBA game throwing him back,” Ham said.
Unfortunately for Russell, he did not play against his former team. The Lakers brought in Russell from Minnesota as point guard. But his new Lakers teammates Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt both played on the Timberwolves team that made the playoffs with Russell last season.
Beasley and Vanderbilt were traded to the Jazz last summer and acquired by the Lakers last month.
Source: LA Times