This was the test, but probably not the one the Lakers thought they would get considering who wasn’t on the court for their opponent.
Had Karl-Anthony Towns not been in the NBA’s COVID-19 protocols, it would’ve been a real test to the Lakers’ determination to play without a true center on the floor. With him (and with point guard D’Angelo Russell) unavailable and the Timberwolves forced to play backups, the Lakers could just keep doing what they’ve been doing.
But as Towns’ backup, Naz Reid, beat up the Lakers’ interior possession after possession, the Lakers’ 10-point lead totally disappearing, the exam was back in front of them.
Faced with an interior player they could not stop, would the Lakers’ continue to play small, grasping on to their first real successful identity they’ve managed to find this year?
Vogel decided that his team, for better or for worse, would be who they are.
And who the Lakers are, more than anything, are a team reliant on LeBron James to figure it out.
James switched onto the Timberwolves' young center, changing the game just enough to help the Lakers inch back toward .500.
While his seven-game streak of 30-point games got snapped, James provided the Lakers with just enough interior presence to survive in a 108-103 win in which they were out-rebounded nearly 2-to-1.
James scored 26 to go with seven rebounds and five assists in the Lakers’ second-straight win. James was a key reason Reid didn’t score any of his 23 points in the fourth quarter.
It wasn’t their only problem, the Lakers still unable to solve something that’s dogged Russell Westbrook for years of his career. Because he plays with so much imprint on the game, particularly on offense, his bad nights usually mean a bad night for his team.
Before Sunday, Westbrook has finished with 19 positive plus/minus ratings — a metric that measures simply whether or not your team out-scores the opponent with you on the floor. In those positive games, the team is 15-4, and in the 11 games in which he’s been plus-8 or better, the Lakers are undefeated.
But on the other side of that, if he struggles, it usually means the Lakers do — the team going 3-15 when his plus/minus is in the negative.
And Sunday, Westbrook was mostly a negative, the ball either slipping off his fingers or firing waywardly off his hands. Even for one of the NBA’s leaders in turnovers, Westbrook was extra sloppy, turning it over 10 times.
It’s his second time this season with 10 turnovers. No other player in the league has a 10-turnover game.
Westbrook finished the game a minus-2.
Thankfully, though, the Lakers survived those minutes because of strong offensive nights from Malik Monk, Avery Bradley and Carmelo Anthony — the kind of balance the Lakers lacked so many nights as they played with a makeshift roster.
Monk has solidified himself, simply, as one of the Lakers’ most important players — scoring 22 and giving them another offensive creator on a team that only really has them at the very top of the roster.
Anthony hit huge shots off the bench, including a four-point play in the fourth that helped seal the win. And Bradley, charged with slowing Anthony Edwards, scored 14 including a fadeaway to beat the shot clock deep in the fourth.
It was all extra because he mostly contained Edwards, the former No. 1 pick, holding him to 18 points while forcing him into eight turnovers alone.
The Lakers scored 21 points off 24 Minnesota turnovers, helping them cover for being out-rebounded 56-28.
Despite the rebounding deficiencies, the Lakers elected to keep DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard on the bench, the team committed to playing this way now (and once Anthony Davis returns, with a version it in the future.
The Lakers, as they move back to some normalcy, are still on the cusp of changes.
Guard Rajon Rondo has cleared health and safety protocols, clearing the way for his trade to Cleveland. And guard Darren Collison, approaching the end of his 10-day contract signed when the Lakers were in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak, was inactive for the second-straight game.
The team will need to make decisions on him and fill-in starter Stanley Johnson early this week.
“Yeah, I mean there are bigger picture things with the roster that we have to look at but Stanley has done everything …,” Vogel said pregame. “Our decision will be with Rob and upstairs but he’s done a great job and I think we’ve kind of seen who Stanley is.”
But whatever they decide, they will do so with a better grasp of who they are — a team down on size that at least has a plan to win without it.
______
