NBA Preseason Update – Minnesota Timberwolves upset Los Angeles Lakers 111-92
The 2nd match of NBA Preseason saw defending champions, Los Angeles Lakers up against Minnesota Timberwolves at London's O2 Arena on Monday.
Despite the fact that Los Angeles Lakers are the current defending champions still, they lost the match which proved these speculations right that if Kobe Bryant doesn’t play at the top of his form this season, Lakers may well suffer.
Lakers' loss amazed many as Minnesota Timberwolves are considered to be one of the weakest teams going into the 2010-11 NBA regular season.
1st Quarter:
Both teams came up with some decent performances at the end of 1st quarter that ended on a 27-27 deadlock.
Lakers were the first ones to score through a Lamar Odom Slam dunk. This dunk was the result of an excellent steal by Lamar Odom. On many occasions Lakers took the lead but Timberwolves didn’t let them run away with it and scored each time they did.
Most of the notable players in Lakers' squad like Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Ron Artest scored but Kobe Bryant was nowhere to be seen on the score sheet with his early misses. In fact, Kobe wasn’t able to score even a single point all through the match.
The 1st quarter was more of a Beasley dominated one as this opportunistic player was able to score every time he got into an open position. Among other scorers for Timberwolves were Darko Milicic and Nikalo Pekovic.
The quarter's last minute saw neither of the teams scoring and both went in with the score all tied up.
2nd Quarter:
The first 2 minutes of the quarter saw neither of the teams scoring but later, Lakers were the first to score once again through Shannon Brown.
Again Lakers' players were able to score from everywhere but still they seemed to be lacking the championship winning element that they had showed last year. Lamar came up with some individual skills and scored quite a few points.
Kobe didn’t play after the 1st quarter and was seen on the court for only six minutes and two seconds. Among the scorers was also the newly added Matt Barnes, who helped the Los Angeles' cause of dominating the quarter. Timberwolves also tried
to keep in touch with the Lakers. This time, Martell Webster also came up with some good healthy points.
Timberwolves managed to score 28 points as compared to 29 of the Lakers. The total score at the end of 2nd quarter was 56-55 in favour of Timberwolves.
3rd Quarter:
In the first 2 quarters, both teams looked weak on their defences which enabled the opposition to score frequently. But, the outcome of 3rd quarter was totally different as Timberwolves were able to form a tough, tight and non-porous defence that restricted
Lakers to just 18 points.
Timberwolves scored 32 points, establishing their commanding lead. The whistle for quarter's end blew with the score being 87-74 in favour of Timberwolves.
There wasn't much to talk about the Lakers from whom only Matt Barnes and Lamar scored most of the 18 points. Matt scored a three-pointer to show that he still had what it takes to play, although, he is quite old now.
Minnesota Timberwolves, on the other hand, dominated the play and were able to pass the Los Angeles Lakers' defence quite often. Martell Webster was the most notable alongside Michael Beasley, who managed to score 2 extravagant three-pointers.
4th Quarter:
The 4th quarter saw Timberwolves maintaining their defence. Lakers were also able to form a decent defence but Timberwolves weren’t completely unstoppable from attacking.
During the quarter, Lakers scored 18 points whereas Timberwolves scored 24 with the notable scorers being Beasley and Webster.
At the end, Minnesota Timberwolves emerged victorious with the score being 111-92 in their favour. The top scorer for Los Angeles Lakers was Lamar with 17 points while for Minnesota Timberwolves; it was Webster with 24 points.
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