Lakers rest on final day of regular season, prep to face Timberwolves in playoffs
The Lakers' reserves wrapped up meaningless regular-season final loss at Portland Sunday. The team will open the NBA playoffs against Minnesota.
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And on the 82nd game, they rested.
The Lakers wrapped their regular season Sunday in Portland with not much more to do than sit and wait, and boy, did the Lakers sit and did they wait.
With their spot as the No. 3 seed in the Western conference playoffs locked in since Friday, LeBron James and Luka Doncic didn’t travel with the team to Portland. Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, Jaxson Hayes, Dorian Finney-Smith, Gabe Vincent and Jared Vanderbilt didn’t play.
The rest of the roster fell to Portland 109-81 while the team waited for games around the NBA to determine who they’d play in the first round of the playoffs. After the Clippers beat the Warriors in overtime, the Lakers' first-round playoff matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves was set.
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Dalton Knecht led the Lakers with 27 points.
“We're going to play who we're going to play. It's out of our control,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said pregame of the potential playoff opponents.
For the Lakers, it’s unchartered territory in LeBron James’ tenure with the team, the Lakers entering the playoffs with Game 1 at Crypto.com Arena for the first time since the 2012 playoffs. It gave the team the luxury to prioritize rest and recovery for most of its lineup, with Jordan Goodwin being the only regular rotation player to play against the Trail Blazers.
In addition to the rest, it gave the Lakers a chance to map out their playoff plans regardless of who they face.
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“We spent more time on it yesterday, finalizing it. And that's a conversation with players. That's a conversation with our coaching staff. That's a conversation with our performance staff. … We factored in all of those things,” Redick said. "And it is about getting guys recovery, it is about getting guys rest, but it also is about conditioning and staying sharp and having enough exposure to live action. So there's physical days, there's mental days. When do you introduce your opponent? All of that stuff. So we've talked through that for the last four days now.”
The plan is for the Lakers to return to the practice court late Tuesday afternoon, with workouts scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
The Lakers will enter the postseason without converting either Trey Jemison III or Christian Koloko to standard contracts, making two two-way bigs ineligible for the playoffs.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
