Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick admitted his team will have their work cut out against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs. After the LA Clippers beat the Golden State Warriors in overtime, the Lakers sealed the number three seed and will take on No. 6 seed Minnesota Timberwolves.
Meanwhile, in the previous season’s Western Conference finals, Luka Doncic and Dallas Mavericks beat the Wolves 4-1, with the Slovenian averaging 32.4 points, 9.6 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 2.2 steals to earn series MVP.
“There are nuances to what teams are trying to do against certain opponents,” Redick said when asked about the benefit of discussing the result of last year’s Western Conference finals with Doncic to get the Lakers ready for Minnesota next weekend.
“We have a lot of work,” Redick said. “They’re a really good basketball team.”
“It’s a very difficult opponent,” Redick said. “They’ve played as well as anyone lately, and I believe they’re one of four teams in the top 10 in offense and defense. So, they present a lot of problems.”
The head coach said they will look to prepare for the opening game of the series by slowly building their momentum.
“It’s not necessarily going to be everything at once this week. We’ll have to slow drip, and I think that’s the approach that I think is going to work best for our group,” Redick said. “Tuesday will be more about us. Wednesday, we’ll introduce Minnesota.”
Los Angeles closed out the regular season with a 109-81 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday. The opening game of the first round between the Lakers and Timberwolves will be played on Saturday.
