Game story

The Minnesota Timberwolves started the 2024-2025 season with a late game against the Los Angeles Lakers. There was a lot going on tonight as it wasn't just the season debut for LeBron James and his son Bronny Jameswho was the first father-son duo to play in an NBA game together, but it was also Minnesota's first official game with Donte DiVincenzo and Julius Randle. Primetime in the Crypto.com Arena.

The game started with Anthony Edwards It was raining for three and Jaden McDaniels He was aggressive at the start, but senior James stepped up and fired right back. An early 16-10 lead for the Lakers just over halfway through the first period. Five early turnovers and a sluggish game caused problems for the Wolves early on, and Los Angeles took advantage. Despite that start, Minnesota led with an 11-4 run to close the first quarter with a 23-22 lead at the end of the first quarter. It felt like the Wolves were very slow on offense and turned the ball over a lot, but were still in the lead. Edwards led the Wolves with eight points and made two three-pointers.

The Lakers started the second quarter with another 12-4 run and were up 34-27 just a few minutes into the second period. This is where things started to go south. With turnover after turnover, the Lakers took advantage of the Wolves' mistakes to extend their lead to 19. This was the beginning of the story. With four minutes left in the quarter, Bronny James entered the game with LeBron. They are the first father-son duo ever to attend an NBA game together. It was an extremely cool moment in the game.

Edwards made a few shots, which helped keep the game from getting out of hand, but the Wolves still looked away. They lost the offensive rebound battle 10 to 5 and the turnover battle 10 to 3. Edwards led Minnesota with 14 points in the half, while Anthony Davis and Rui Hachimura impressed with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

At the start of the second half, Wolves continued to suffer from a lack of energy and disjointedness. The home team continued to maintain their double-digit lead despite Wolves' reluctance and used the charity stripe to easily pick up points. Their energy increased in the final eight minutes of the third quarter, which helped turn the tide of the game. The Wolves came within eight at 82-74.

Naz Reid started the final quarter hot, quickly scoring five points as his team cut the lead to four before forcing a quick LA timeout. The Lakers responded immediately and maintained several possession leads over the Wolves. At that point, Anthony Davis, who dominated the entire game, stepped on Minnesota's throat. He was a force on both ends of the court, scoring 11 points on a series of difficult shots in the final seven minutes while acting as a stalwart at the rim for anyone who dared get near him. The Wolves struggled to keep the game within reach but couldn't get it close enough to take the lead and fell to the Lakers 110-103.

Key insights

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Non-Rudy Gobert Protocol

As is to be expected when such a large trade is made so close to the start of the season, there are some questions that need to be answered. One of them is who would take over as backup center within minutes of Towns' departure. In the first half, with Reid and Randle forming the frontcourt pairing, Finch decided to switch to a zone defense to mitigate any potential problems.

That didn't work at all.

When Rudy sat down, the Timberwolves were struggling to get stops, something that will have to be sorted out as the season progresses, although it makes sense why that happened. Both Reid and Randle were asked to play the five positions sparingly, only as small options with little to no other big players around them. They both played as if they expected the other to rotate as the center, but neither did. That doesn't mean it's their fault or that they can't do it, but something that needs to be the focus in the upcoming games.

Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images

Anthony Davis takeover

Davis dominated the game, especially in the fourth quarter. He scored 36 points and grabbed 16 rebounds while getting to the finish line 15 times. And be a force on the fringes. As previously mentioned, the Wolves had great difficulty finishing the ball when it was near the basket. This is related to the struggles of Reid and Randle, who were unable to stop Davis when Gobert got up from the ground. Furthermore, AD just had a special evening.

Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

Clunky offense and how to deal with it

The ball moment that we were all so looking forward to in pre-season was not there for the Wolves tonight. Everyone was still finding their footing and figuring out how everything fit together – especially Randle. I thought there were times where Randle wasn't 100% sure what he was doing offensively, which makes sense since it will take some time for him to acclimate. The offense looked a little suspect in this game, which is to be expected given the shocking roster change that was made just before the start of the season. In the first half they made the poor process worse with lack of energy, but I thought in the second half both problems got better. The energy was there and while the offense still struggled to get going, overall there were some things to like about it and clear areas of improvement.

It's easy to get negative, especially after an opening night loss. So let's look at some positive aspects:

• Randle got to the free throw line and found ways to fit in offensively in the second half
• Rudy Gobert is a force on the glass and active on offense
• The three-point volume is increased, but they must be achieved at a higher clip
• Nickeil Alexander-Walker hits his threes and is a team-best +13

Highlights

Next

The Wolves will remain on the west coast of California to play the game Sacramento Kings To Thursday, October 24th at 9:00 p.m. CT. Sit back, relax and enjoy some Vikings football before another Wolves game where they look to fix some of the issues we saw tonight.