Timberwolves at Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers go after a season-high fourth straight victory when they host the struggling Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday night. The Lakers knocked off playoff-bound Memphis and San Antonio before getting 25 points from Julius Randle while forcing 23 turnovers in a 98-94 triumph against Sacramento on Friday.
“Everybody’s kind of rising to the challenge as far as the way they’re playing, competing mainly on the defensive end,” Los Angeles coach Luke Walton told reporters. “. … They’re having fun and competing. When we were playing well early in the year that’s what we were doing. Losing took that from us. We found it again in the last couple games.” The Lakers are 1 ½ games up on last-place Phoenix in the Western Conference after their streak and own the third-fewest victories in the league overall with three games remaining. Minnesota is limping to the end of the season with three straight losses to start their four-game road trip, but Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins are still producing. The two are averaging better than 29 points apiece in April and are scoring almost 50 combined per game on the season.
TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, NBATV, FSN North (Minnesota), Spectrum SportsNet (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (31-48): Towns scored 32 and Wiggins added 25 in the 120-113 loss to Utah on Friday as Minnesota allowed 60 percent shooting from the field. Point guard Ricky Rubio added 26 against the Jazz last time out and has continued to be a productive third option while averaging 19 points and 10.1 assists over the last nine contests - recording five double-doubles in the past seven. Last year’s fifth-overall draft pick Kris Dunn is just 1-for-10 from the field over the last four games.
ABOUT THE LAKERS (24-55): The players don’t want to hear about tanking down the stretch for a chance at a higher draft pick. “I know my guys around me we don’t believe in going out there and trying to lose games,” Randle told the Los Angeles Times. “The basketball gods come back, I believe in that, it’ll come back and haunt you. … You gotta treat the game with respect.” Randle is finishing strong, averaging 16 points and 8.8 rebounds while shooting 51.7 percent from the field over the last five contests.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Lakers are last in the league in shooting percentage defense entering the weekend (48.3) and the Wolves are 28th (47.6).
2. Los Angeles F Brandon Ingram, the second overall draft pick in 2016, is shooting better than 50 percent from the field since March 1 and scored in double figures 13 of his last 14 games.
3. Minnesota has won two of three meetings this season, including a 119-104 triumph with 33 points from Rubio on March 30.