The 2024-25 NBA regular season has drawn to a close, and Minnesota Timberwolves fans now know exactly where their team will be once the playoffs start next weekend. After taking down the Utah Jazz 116-105 on Sunday afternoon, the Wolves earned the sixth seed in the West and will be facing off with the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round.
In drawing this matchup, Minnesota put themselves in excellent position to move on to the semifinals. This is obviously a different Lakers team than the one the Timberwolves faced for three out of the four games in the regular season. Luka Doncic makes them a different animal, and some fans are worried about how favorable of an opponent this is, especially given Luka's dominance against Minnesota in last year's playoffs. But despite the concerns of some, the Timberwolves match up exceedingly well against this Lakers team.
Yes, Minnesota was an inconsistent team for much of the regular season. But when evaluating a playoff series, we can only go off of what we know. And on paper, the Wolves have the personnel to make life extremely difficult for the Lakers. For starters, Minnesota is a very big team. Ever since trading away Anthony Davis, LA does not boast the same kind of overall height advantage.
The Timberwolves are in excellent position to end the Lakers' season
It would be one thing if Minnesota's front line was going to have to go against AD on the interior. But Jaxson Hayes is a completely different story. And that leads me to the next big advantage the Timberwolves will have over the Lakers: Defense. As a team, LA has struggled massively from a defensive standpoint ever since a hot stretch after the trade deadline that can mostly be considered fool's gold at this point.
The Lakers have registered just a 115.3 defensive rating as a team since the All-Star break, good for 17th in the association. Meanwhile, the Timberwolves rank in the top 10 during that same stretch, with a 113.8 rating. Of course, the biggest concern remains Doncic. But when we look at LA's roster, Luka does not have nearly the same arsenal of teammates with which to hurt Minnesota like he did last season in Dallas. The Wolves may be able to double him a lot more often.
Many Lakers fans were probably hoping for another run to the Western Conference Finals for their team before Sunday, but those odds are now looking increasingly unlikely as the Timberwolves matchup looms. Not many teams in the West are as equipped to take down LA as Minnesota, and the Wolves have a very solid chance of sending the Lakers home and enacting some revenge on Doncic for last year's playoffs.