Los Angeles Lakers Are Out in the First Round

The Los Angeles Lakers are one of those organizations that the thought is, “Championship or bust”. Well, this season has been a bust, failure, or whatever adjective you want to throw on it. A team with LeBron James and Luka Doncic was eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves 103-96. The Timberwolves won the series 4-1 to move on in the NBA Playoffs.

Laker Issues:

What happened to the Los Angeles Lakers?

Back on February 2, 2025 people were falling all over themselves with shock and awe. The Lakers had made a late night trade with the Dallas Mavericks to acquire Luka Doncic. Almost immediately the thought became how the Lakers could make it to the NBA Finals. They had the heir apparent in Doncic to the Laker Kingdom when LeBron James left for retirement. Los Angeles Laker fans saw future NBA Championships coming there way, but were the fans a bit delusional for that thought?

Not in the least. Luka Doncic is one of those rare players that come along that can change the fortunes of any franchise. Doncic had got an upstart Dallas Maverick team to the NBA Finals in 2024. Unfortunately, for Doncic, they met a superior Boston Celtics team who beat them in five games.

Doncic is just entering his prime NBA years. Luka is fantastic scorer and distributor for any team that he plays on. His change of pace, his ability to get the ball to teammates, and his knack for scoring in big moments make him appointment television for fans.

Luka Doncic:

However, Luka Doncic is major defensive liability when he is out on the court. The Celtics destroyed him defensively in the NBA Finals last year. He was put in pick and rolls against Boston and exposed by Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown. The Celtics would get the ball to whomever had Doncic on him and let that player go isolation on Luka. It was not pretty for the Mavericks or Luka. It was downright embarrassing.

However, Luka Doncic is not the only reason the Lakers are on an early vacation. When you really examine why things went so wrong for this Laker team you can multiple issues besides Doncic’s defense.

Minnesota Matchup:

First of all, it’s the Minnesota Timberwolves. Now, I understand why people were choosing the Lakers to come out on top in this series. LeBron, Luka, and the Timberwolves not having the season we thought were part of that reasoning.

To begin with, this was a bad matchup for the Lakers. When the Los Angeles Lakers made the trade for Luka Doncic they gave away a great rim protector in Anthony Davis. Davis is an All-NBA player and an All-Defensive player. AD is tall, long, athletic, and certainly has the ability to block shots. The Lakers didn’t have any legit rim protection when they traded Anthony Davis. Teams that had size and athleticism could get to the rim much easier. The opposition did not have to worry about shots getting rejected or altered on a consistent basis with no AD. The hole in the back of the defense that was created when Anthony Davis left was immense. I wholeheartedly believe that if Davis was still a Laker this series would still be going.

Anthony Edwards:

Secondly, let’s put some more respect on the name of Anthony Edwards, AKA, Ant-Man. This guy wants all the smoke from the opposing team. Ant-Man is not scared of anything on the court or anybody. In an earlier series game Edwards was guarding LeBron James and physically putting his hands into the chest of James on defense. Edwards did this while talking trash to his 2024 Olympic teammate.

Edwards will talk his stuff during the game, he’ll guard the best player(s), and he’s not afraid of taking big shots in big moments. Plus, he will produce some of the best highlights that you will ever see on a basketball court. Even though he only scored 15 points in the close out game he was impactful in other ways. The Lakers would often send a double team his way and Edwards would find the guy that has a better shot.

As much as Anthony Edwards made life tough on the Lakers, the Lakers could not do the same to Ant. Edwards could get to the rim or any other shot he wanted. Anytime he wanted. Anthony Edwards was a menace to the Lakers. More specifically, Edwards is a menace for the entire NBA and he showed it during this playoff series.

Rudy Gobert:

Rudy Gobert is a guy that is not really liked around the NBA. In fact, he is often mocked for things he has done during his time in the NBA. On Wednesday night in Los Angeles Rudy Gobert exacted some revenge on some of those thoughts about him. He became the bully in the middle for the Timberwolves. When it was all said and done he finished with 27 points, 24 rebounds, and 2 blocks in helping his team finish off the Lakers 4-1.

On Wednesday night he made people realize that despite the constant hazing by fans he can be a difference maker on the court. The Lakers tried different guys on Gobert, but it didn’t matter who it was for the Lakers. Rudy Gobert was not going to pushed around on this night because the Lakers had absolutely nobody that could push him around. He helped take some of the pressure off of Anthony Edwards. If the Timberwolves get more of this from Gobert they will be an even tougher out in the playoffs.

Conclusion:

Finally, the Los Angeles Lakers are out of the playoffs because of bad defense, being bullied by a bigger team, and by getting a bad matchup. To those who thought the Lakers would be moving onto the second round with relative ease you need to be reminded of a simple sports saying, “You still need to prove it on the court”. You still have to lace the sneakers up and actually go play the game.

Michael J. Wilson-The Daily Waiver

Email: [email protected]; Instagram: @dailywaiver; Tik-Tok: dailywaiver