The big disadvantage the Los Angeles Lakers have in their first-round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves is their lack of size up front. Minnesota’s frontline is simply taller, longer and stronger, and it isn’t only because of center Rudy Gobert, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year who stands 7-foot-1.
Minnesota has four other men who are each 6-foot-9 and can produce points, both at the rim and from beyond the arc: Julius Randle, Naz Reid and Jaden McDaniels. In the Lakers’ Game 1 loss on Saturday, McDaniels hurt them arguably more than anyone else by hitting 11 of his 13 field goal attempts to score 25 points while grabbing nine rebounds.
Advertisement
He made a blunt statement about how undersized the Lakers are following Game 1.
Via Lakers Nation:
“I just noticed at certain times when they had no rim protector in the game, when Jaxson Hayes wasn’t on the court,” McDaniels said. “If he’s not on the court, I’m basically the tallest person out there. So I don’t think no one could really rim protect me because Jaxson Hayes wasn’t on the court.”
Other than the seven-foot Hayes, who is the Lakers’ starting center, the team’s tallest rotation player is the 6-foot-9 LeBron James. No one else in the team’s rotation is over 6-foot-8.
Los Angeles may not ever win the rebounding battle in any single game in this series. But it has to allow much fewer than the 23 second-chance points it surrendered in Game 1.
While it has to find a way to protect the rim, especially when Hayes, who played just eight minutes in Game 1, isn’t on the floor, it also has to defend the 3-point line much better. On Saturday, the Timberwolves went 21-of-42 from downtown, which was simply inexcusable.
Advertisement
Game 2 will likely be as close to a must-win game as the Lakers can have this early in the playoffs.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Jaden McDaniels’ blunt statement about the Lakers’ lack of size
