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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Do the Thunder have what it takes to reach the Finals?<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City has the pieces\u2014but do they have the experience to win three playoff series?<\/p>\n
LeBron James was spectacular<\/a> with 38 points and 10 rebounds, setting the mark for most points scored in an NBA playoff game by a 40-year-old. But he wasn\u2019t good enough to cover up arguably the Lakers\u2019 biggest problem.<\/p>\n The lack of rim protection.<\/p>\n On Friday night, in Minnesota\u2019s 116-104 victory <\/a>over Los Angeles in Game 3 of their NBA <\/a>first-round playoff series, the Timberwolves outscored the Lakers in the paint 56-26.<\/p>\n The trade of big man Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic has left the Lakers exposed in the paint. And Minnesota\u2019s Jaden McDaniels, a 6-9 forward, exploited the issue while scoring a career-high 30 points.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact is we don\u2019t have the \u2018rim protection\u2019 \u201d Lakers coach JJ Redick said after the game.<\/p>\n So what can the Lakers do to combat the problem before attempting to acquire rim blockers in the offseason?<\/p>\n \u201cWe’ve done it all year when we’ve been at our best,\u2019\u2019 Redick said. \u201cWe’ve been able to be physical on the ball and not allow blow-bys and also have sort of a cover mentality, multiple effort, and it was there at times tonight.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n Although the Timberwolves exploited the Lakers\u2019 weakness, Redick said his team exerted effort. But he also noted miscues and, \u201cthose things really, really accumulate, especially when you’re turning the ball over.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n Turnovers plague Lakers<\/p>\n James was brilliant for much of the game. But even he couldn\u2019t escape the Lakers\u2019 fumblitis.<\/p>\n Setting up for a 3-point shot, James fumbled the ball without a defender even close in a moment that underscored the game. They showed flashes of the skill and focus to beat the Timberwolves on the road, but were outscored 13-1 to close the game.<\/p>\n The Lakers had 19 turnovers compared to just eight by the Timberwolves.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Lakers’ worst offenders were Doncic, who had five turnovers, and Austin Reaves, who had four.<\/p>\n Ant-man revs up in Game 3<\/p>\n Anthony Edwards somehow looked mortal despite scoring 22 points in Game 1 and 25 points in Game 2. That was not the case in Game 3, when he looked dynamic while scoring 29 points to go with eight rebounds and eight assists.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I had to figure it out and lead my team to a win,\u2019\u2019 Edwards told ESPN. \u201cI haven\u2019t been playing to the best of my ability in the first two games, so just trying to figure out how to get to my spots and be efficient.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n After Game 2, Edwards said he was confused by how the Lakers had tried to attack him. He told ESPN he watched game film when he got home from the game and watched more later that day.<\/p>\n \u201cI figured a couple of things out,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cIt still was a little rough. Some raggedy edges. But came and played a little better.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n LeBron overcomes injuries<\/p>\n James is suffering from lingering injuries to his hip and groin but several hours before the game told The Athletic, \u201cI\u2019m available today.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n Boy, was he ever.<\/p>\n James scored 38 points on 13-of-21 shooting, including 5-of-9 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n During stretches, he all but singlehandedly kept the Lakers in the game.<\/p>\n With the Lakers trailing 97-90, he hit back-to-back 3-pointers. But ultimately James found himself outmanned.<\/p>\n What\u2019s next for Lakers?<\/p>\n Trailing in the series 2-1, the Lakers play the Timberwolves in Game 4 on Sunday at the Target Center in Minneapolis facing a daunting skid. The Lakers have lost eight straight playoff games on the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do the Thunder have what it takes to reach the Finals? Oklahoma City has the pieces\u2014but do they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[740,299,514,375,7,515,510,377,517,300,516,185,298,150,511,307,152,54,79,70,85,6,11,62,67,61,81,34,65,66,83,55,64,308,63,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-analysis","9":"tag-angeles","10":"tag-anthony","11":"tag-anthony-edwards","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-edwards","14":"tag-jaden","15":"tag-jaden-mcdaniels","16":"tag-james","17":"tag-lakers","18":"tag-lebron","19":"tag-lebron-james","20":"tag-los","21":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","22":"tag-mcdaniels","23":"tag-minnesota","24":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","25":"tag-modular","26":"tag-modular-story","27":"tag-national","28":"tag-national-sports","29":"tag-nba","30":"tag-nba-playoffs","31":"tag-neutral","32":"tag-news","33":"tag-overall","34":"tag-overall-neutral","35":"tag-playoffs","36":"tag-point","37":"tag-sports","38":"tag-sports-news","39":"tag-story","40":"tag-the","41":"tag-timberwolves","42":"tag-to","43":"tag-to-the-point"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822","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=822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}