{"id":5437,"date":"2025-05-01T06:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T06:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/5437\/"},"modified":"2025-05-01T06:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T06:18:10","slug":"lakers-timberwolves-gobert-stars-knocks-lebron-doncic-out-of-playoffs-basketball-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/5437\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers-Timberwolves: Gobert stars, knocks LeBron, Doncic out of playoffs | Basketball News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rudy Gobert\u2019s 27-point, 24-rebound game for Minnesota Timberwolves knocks Los Angeles Lakers out of the NBA playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Minnesota Timberwolves sent LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers tumbling out of the NBA playoffs at the first hurdle, producing a clinical 103-96 win to complete a 4-1 series victory.<\/p>\n

Minnesota\u2019s French centre Rudy Gobert delivered a dominant display at both ends of the court on Wednesday, finishing with 27 points and 24 rebounds as the Lakers exited the postseason in the first round for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

The Wolves advance to a Western Conference semifinal showdown against the winner of Golden State\u2019s series against the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n

The Lakers, meanwhile, were left to reflect on another disappointingly short postseason campaign after a regular season that had built impressive momentum after the stunning trade for Luka Doncic in February.<\/p>\n

The Lakers\u2019 failure to acquire an authentic defensive big after Anthony Davis\u2019s departure to Dallas came back to haunt them on Wednesday as Gobert dominated around the rim.<\/p>\n

The Lakers \u2013 who had surged to third seed following Doncic\u2019s arrival \u2013 were also found wanting offensively, with James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves making just five three-pointers between them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great,\u201d Gobert told TNT television after the win. \u201cWe had a season with ups and downs so to come here and play the way we did means a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have a bunch of guys that want to win. And a lot of guys who have been through adversity throughout their career and their life and we love each other \u2026 all the things we went through throughout the season prepared us for this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gobert\u2019s contribution was backed by 23 points from Julius Randle while Anthony Edwards added 15 points with 11 rebounds and eight assists.<\/p>\n

Doncic led the Lakers scoring with 28 points while Rui Hachimura chipped in with 23 points and James 22.<\/p>\n

\"LosThe Los Angeles Lakers \u2018Big-3\u2019 of Luka Doncic #77, LeBron James #23 and Austin Reaves #15 bow out of the first round of the NBA playoffs in Game 5 of the Western Conference, first-round playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves on April 30, 2025, at Crypto.Com Arena in Los Angeles, California, US [Juan Ocampo\/Getty Images via AFP]
\nRockets avoid elimination against Warriors<\/p>\n

In Wednesday\u2019s other playoff game, Houston kept their series against Golden State alive with a 131-116 thrashing of the Warriors, narrowing the gap in their Western Conference series to 3-2.<\/p>\n

Fred VanVleet scored 26 points, Amen Thompson added 25 points and five steals and Dillon Brooks chipped in 24 for the Rockets, who led by as many as 31 points and were up by 29 when Warriors coach Steve Kerr waved the white flag, pulling Stephen Curry and the rest of his starters with 5:50 left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

With their season on the line after an agonising loss in a game-four thriller, the Rockets blasted out of the gate.<\/p>\n

They connected on 64.7 percent of their shots in the first quarter on the way to a 40-24 lead.<\/p>\n

VanVleet drilled three of Houston\u2019s six first-quarter three-pointers and the Rockets made all 13 of their free throws in their opening period blitz.<\/p>\n

The Warriors looked powerless to respond, with Curry and Jimmy Butler failing to score in the opening quarter, and the team turned the ball over five times.<\/p>\n

Curry\u2019s first basket was a three-pointer midway through the second quarter. But the Warriors could make few inroads in the face of Houston\u2019s suffocating defence and the Rockets led 76-49 at halftime.<\/p>\n

Kerr said he had no qualms about pulling his starters in a potential clinching game, a decision that gave some rest to 37-year-old Curry \u2013 playing through a thumb injury \u2013 Draymond Green and Butler, who missed game three with a pelvic injury.<\/p>\n

They can still close out the series when they host game six on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t come out with that lack of defensive focus and energy and expect to beat a great team on their home floor,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cThey took it to us \u2013 they were awesome tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curry finished with 13 points and Butler scored eight for the Warriors. Moses Moody scored 25 points and led the Warriors reserves in a late comeback bid that saw them pull within 13 points with five minutes left.<\/p>\n

Then things got chippy again, with Warriors\u2019 reserve Pat Spencer ejected for head-butting Houston centre Alperen Sengun \u2013 and the Rockets pulled away to close out the Game 5 win.<\/p>\n

\"BasketballJalen Green #4 of the Houston Rockets looks to pass the ball between Gui Santos #15 and Kevon Looney #5 of the Golden State Warriors during the first half in Game Five of the Western Conference First Round NBA Playoffs at Toyota Center on April 30, 2025 in Houston, Texas, US [Alex Slitz\/Getty Images via AFP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rudy Gobert\u2019s 27-point, 24-rebound game for Minnesota Timberwolves knocks Los Angeles Lakers out of the NBA playoffs. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,6,11,67,275,417,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-5437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-playoffs","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-us-canada"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114431125332169267","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}