On Tuesday April 11th, the 7th seed Los Angeles Lakers would host a play-in game against the 8th seed Timberwolves to try to clinch that 7th seed in the playoffs.
From their final game of the regular season that had ended on Sunday April 9th, Head Coach Darvin Ham had to get his troops ready within 48 hours to get ready for the play in game.
As an advantage for the Lakers the Timberwolves would be missing Center, Rudy Gobert who have to miss a game due to suspension after getting into an altercation with his teammate Kyle Anderson during a timeout on the last game of the regular season.
As the game started in the first quarter the Lakers didn’t get off to the start that they was looking far, as the timberwolves was able to have control of the game leading 28-22.
As second quarter got going, both teams was playing good basketball, both sticking to the gameplan that their respective head coaches had planned.
The Lakers was still struggling to find their rhythm. Point guard D’angelo Russell was struggling from the field, but any team that has two top 10 players can make up for that.
On the other hand, the Timberwolves was able to hold on to their lead, with getting major contributions from their two veterans, point guard Mike Conley and Karl Anthony Towns.
The Timberwolves will take the 11 point lead into the locker room leading 60-49.
With the Lakers losing at halftime, everyone knew that that the game was far from over. Espically with a team that that has 2 superstars with Anthony Davis and LeBron James leading the way.
As the third quarter get going, Lebron James gathered his team together and they got going. And so did the fans. Anthony Davis started getting busy, dominating in the mid-post as he been going for the second half of the season.
Off the bench point guard Dennis Schroder came in scoring as they started chipping away at the lead.
In the fourth quarter both teams gave it everything they had. it was playoff atsmosphere in the arena. As the game got close to under 2 min to go to determine a winner, it was hard for both ball clubs could not find the rim.
With under 10 seconds to go, LeBron James drives to the rim, and kicks it out to a wide open Dennis Schroder, he knocks down a 3 to put the Lakers up 98-95.
As the Timberwolves get the ball on their final possession of the ball game, the two superstars Davis and James wasn’t communication good on the screens, Davis fouls Mike Conley on a 3 point attempt. He goes to the free throw line and make all three free throws to send the game into overtime.
As the game goes into overtime, Crypto Arena started getting extremely loud, and both LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the unsung hero Schroder had outscored the Timberwolves 19-12 in the overtime period to bring the city of LA their playoff berth.
LeBron James was the leading scorer for the Lakers with a 30 point double double with Davis adding 24 points and 15 rebounds, and Dennis adding a huge 21 points off the bench.
The Lakers will head into the first round matchup against the 2 seed Memphis Grizzles. Game 1 will be on Sunday April 16, at 3:00PM EST.