At first glance, the first quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday was about as poor as the first quarters of their previous two games.
They fell behind 31-17 and again looked seriously outmatched, as was the case against the Phoenix Suns and Toronto Raptors.
But head coach Frank Vogel saw it differently, and he saw some improvement over the prior two contests.
Via Lakersnation:
“I thought the effort was a lot better in the first quarter than the last two,” Vogel said. “LeBron (James) wanted to send us home and I thought he did come out and laid it all out there and set a great tone for our group. We just couldn’t put the ball in the basket. Zero for 10 from 3 again and that just puts us behind the eight ball.
“We’re going to continue to work on shot quality and figure out a way to put the ball in the basket.”
L.A. was competitive for the first seven minutes or so of Wednesday’s game, but after leading 12-10, Minnesota went on a quick 10-2 run, and before they knew it, the Lakers were down by 10.
Unlike their recent games against Phoenix and Toronto, L.A. made a strong fourth-quarter run, and at one point it pulled to within four points.
But a 25-9 run by the Timberwolves put the game out of reach, and the Lakers were defeated yet again.
It was L.A.’s ninth loss (against just two wins) since the All-Star break, and with just 15 games remaining in the regular season, most of them against good or great teams, there is a real possibility of it not qualifying for the play-in tournament.
