There is a ton of excitement surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers as the postseason nears and the Crypto.com Arena is expected to be rocking for Game 1 on Saturday night. Someone who will play a major role for the Lakers throughout this postseason run is Dorian Finney-Smith.
The veteran wing has been paramount to the Lakers’ success over these past few months and he will be relied upon heavily on both ends of the court. He has plenty of playoff experience over the years, but never in front of this Lakers crowd and that is something Finney-Smith is very much looking forward to.
“This is the first time I’ll feel that Laker energy that I grew up watching in the playoffs,” Finney-Smith said following the Lakers’ practice on Thursday. “I’m excited to see the energy that’s gonna be in the building.”
While the Lakers crowd has a reputation as late arrivers who aren’t as passionate as other fanbases, that is never the case in the postseason. Any time the Lakers have made deep playoff runs, the crowd is one of the best and loudest in the league and that was undoubtedly the case inside Crypto.com Arena during the Lakers’ run to the Western Conference Finals in 2023.
That is expected to be the case once again when the Lakers take on the Minnesota Timberwolves and Finney-Smith knows this crowd will be locked in.
“I know the playoffs are different, obviously,” Finney-Smith added. “Every possession matters in the playoffs. Our fans are always engaged, so I can only imagine how that will be in the playoffs. Talking to AR and Vando, they talked about that run they made and how it was lit in the building, so I’m looking forward to seeing it for myself.”
It will not be easy for the Lakers to take care of the Timberwolves and the fact that they secured home-court advantage for this round is a big deal as the Lakers’ 31-10 home record is third-best in the NBA. There is no doubt Finney-Smith and the rest of the team will be feeding off that energy in the building throughout the postseason.
Austin Reaves: Lakers locked in and ready to compete vs. Timberwolves
While the home crowd should give a nice boost, it will be up to the players to deliver on the court. But Austin Reaves knows the Lakers are locked in ahead of their first round series with the Timberwolves and must play hard and value every possession.
“You just gotta play hard as shit,” Reaves noted. “Every possession, you win by the smallest margins and you lose by the smallest margins in the playoffs, as we could tell from last year. Obviously it’s not the same team, but if you go back and watch last year’s games, one thing here and there could’ve changed the whole series and we would’ve had an opportunity to play in the second round.
“But we didn’t do those, so we gotta do that every single game. We can’t take possessions off. At the end of the day, we got a group of guys that are just ready to go to war. There’s a difference in being ready to go to war by yourself than being ready to go to war with your team. We’re locked in as a group and ready to go compete.”