There are plenty of things the Lakers can clean up for Game 2, but a big one is stopping the barrage of 3-point shots.
The Wolves dominated the Lakers in all facets of the game in Game 1 of their first round playoff series. Minnesota shone in 3-point shooting, in particular, as they converted on half of their 42 attempts from deep.
What’s even more alarming about these stats is that every 3-point shot the Wolves took was considered an open look.
The Minnesota Timberwolves shot 21-of-42 on three-pointers in their Game 1 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Of those 42 three-point attempts:
27 were classified as wide open
15 were classified as open
0 were classified as coming against tight or very tight defense— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) April 20, 2025
Now, the Lakers were also able to get up some threes of their own. They attempted 41 but only converted on 36%. That’s not going to be good enough when the other team is red-hot and making their open jumpers.
“We got good looks.” Dorian Finney-Smith said after Monday’s practice. “We did our job with Anthony Edwards. Just other guys got hot. We got to make sure we limit their lasers, their great 3-point shooters. They can’t get off 24 threes. We have to do a better job of getting their attempts down.”
Anthony Edwards didn’t go off against the Lakers, but they didn’t slow him down much either. During the regular season, Edwards attempted 10.3 threes a game. That was the fourth-highest attempts in the NBA. In Game 1, he still got up nine threes and one of his four makes was a dagger over Luka Dončić.
ANT HIT THE THREE AND CELEBRATION ON LUKA pic.twitter.com/JxjNspzFpi
— ESPN (@espn) April 20, 2025
The player who truly hurt the purple and gold was Naz Reid. He scored 23 points off the bench, making six 3-pointers.
Julius Randle and Jaden McDaniels were also impactful. McDaniels went a perfect 3-3 from deep and Randle made four 3-pointers in his 16-point performance.
For the Lakers to clean this up, they will need to contest the shots the Wolves take from beyond the arc more effectively and force them off the 3-point line and into contested twos.
That, however, opens up the points in the paint problem, but against a team as good as the Wolves, you won’t prevent everything. The Lakers must decide what needs to be shut down and address the challenges of what they are willing to offer.
In Game 1, Minnesota had every shot and look available and feasted on all of it. For this “must-win” Game 2 to go differently, the Lakers focusing on defending the perimeter is a great place to start.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.