LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers secured the seventh position in the Western Conference playoffs with a 108-102 overtime victory over the short-handed Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA’s play-in tournament on Tuesday night. LeBron James had 30 points and 10 rebounds.
Dennis Schroder scored 21 points and sealed the victory with two free throws with 8.4 seconds remaining for the Lakers, who will face the second-seeded Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday in the first round.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 24 points and Mike Conley made three free throws with 0.1 seconds remaining in regulation to equalise the game for the Timberwolves, who will host either New Orleans or Oklahoma City on Friday for the eighth seed and a first-round matchup with top-seeded Denver beginning Sunday.
Minnesota must defeat the victor of Wednesday’s matchup between the Pelicans and Thunder in order to reach the playoffs for only the third time in the past 19 seasons.
Anthony Davis tallied 24 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, and committed a terrible foul on Conley, who scored 23 points. Minnesota gave a valiant effort in the first three quarters without starting guards Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels, but Los Angeles prevailed nonetheless.
Gobert is suspended for punching teammate Kyle Anderson in the regular-season finale for Minnesota against New Orleans, while McDaniels is out indefinitely with a fractured hand after punching a wall in frustration on Sunday.
Midway through the fourth quarter, the Lakers overcame a 15-point second-half deficit by limiting Minnesota to seven points over the final 11 minutes. After leading for the majority of the game, Minnesota went six minutes without scoring.
Schroder sank a game-winning 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds remaining in regulation, but the Wolves forced overtime when Conley made his free throws after Davis landed on his foot after he had already launched a 3-point attempt.
Rui Hachimura’s 12-point 3-pointer on the opening possession of overtime gave Los Angeles the lead for good. Before Anthony Edwards’ dunk with two minutes remaining in overtime, the Timberwolves missed 11 consecutive attempts.
Edwards scored nine points, more than 15 below his average, and momentarily left the court in the second half to have tape applied to his left shoulder.
Los Angeles’ D’Angelo Russell had a nightmare game against the team that traded him in February, netting two points on 1-of-9 shooting and dishing out eight assists while shooting 1-of-9. He was replaced down the stretch by Schroder, who performed magnificently.
This was the first non-regular-season game played in front of a complete home crowd for the Lakers since LeBron James joined the team five seasons ago. In 2018 and 2022, Los Angeles failed to qualify for the postseason.
Since April 2013, when their arena was still Staples Center, the Lakers have not had a full house for a non-regular season game.
Chris Finch, the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, stated that he had spent the last two days “sorting through the wreckage” of the Wolves’ eventful season finale, which left his team without its best rim protector and its best point-of-attack defender against LeBron James in the teams’ most recent meetings.
However, the Timberwolves appeared superior to the Lakers from the outset, jumping out to an early advantage before closing the second quarter on a 14-2 run to take a 60-49 halftime lead. After Towns was ejected from the game with five infractions early in the fourth quarter, the Wolves’ lead dwindled.
