Lakers, Timberwolves meet in playoffs crunch time

Already set to be a top-four seed in the upcoming playoffs and searching for the Western Conference's No. 1 seed for the second time in franchise history, the Minnesota Timberwolves will need a short memory heading into a test against the host Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.

The Timberwolves (53-24) enter Sunday's game off their worst offensive performance of the season, when they were humbled 97-87 by the host Phoenix Suns on Friday after falling behind 15-0 to open the game. They had 14 of their 19 turnovers in the first half.

"It's been a little bit of a habit for us, high turnovers in the first quarter," Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch said. "That's why we have been struggling to score out of the gate. And then we fought the game the whole time. ... It was a complete breakdown offensively."

Minnesota enters play Sunday a half-game behind defending champion Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference.

The Timberwolves are a commendable 10-5 without Karl-Anthony Towns, who is moving closer to a return from left meniscus tear. But his absence was felt Friday when the Wolves shot 38.8 percent from the floor, 36.1 percent in the first half and 33.3 percent in the opening quarter.

Minnesota guard Anthony Edwards was 6-of-19 shooting, while scoring 17 points. Naz Reid, who has started 11 of the 15 games that Towns has missed, scored eight points on 3-of-13 shooting.

"I think it's Mercury in retrograde. Is that a real thing? It felt like it tonight," Minnesota guard Mike Conley said in jest after scoring five points on 1-of-6 shooting with three turnovers. "It felt like everything we did, even in a positive light, it ended up being negative."

The Lakers (45-33) did not play Friday but clinched at least a spot in the play-in tournament anyway with the Houston Rockets' loss to the Miami Heat. They went out Saturday afternoon and celebrated with a 116-97 home victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

De'Angelo Russell had 28 points for Los Angeles, while LeBron James (24 points, 12 assists) and Anthony Davis (22 points, 13 rebounds) put the charge into the Lakers once again.

With four consecutive victories, while coming out on top in nine of their past 10, Los Angeles has moved into eighth place in the Western Conference and is a half game behind the seventh-place New Orleans Pelicans. It is the first time the Lakers have been in eighth place since Dec. 29.

"We all know the position that we're in and what we can do with four games left," Davis said. "So, just keep stacking, keep focusing on one game at a time and continue doing what we're doing, especially on the defensive end."

Sunday's game comes a little less than a month after the Lakers earned a 120-109 victory over the Timberwolves on March 10 to win for the first time in three tries during the season series. Davis had 27 points with 25 rebounds in that matchup, as Minnesota was without Towns and Rudy Gobert.

--Field Level Media