Los Angeles Lakers vs Minnesota Timberwolves Prediction: The Lakers can rest their key players

The NBA Preseason will be gone in a few days and to be honest, it is all about the tip-off during the Regular Season which will begin in a week now. This season Golden State Warriors will begin their defense title and it will be fun to watch how they go about it. But then there is a team that has a lot of catching up to do, i.e. the Los Angeles Lakers. They will play the Timberwolves here.

The Lakers were among the worst defensive teams last season and they were allowing teams to go on big runs regularly. Their offense was fine when LeBron James was popping off alongside Malik Monk(no longer with the team), but Russell Westbrook remained iffy. The combination of the poor defense and inconsistent play on offense meant that the Lakers didn’t even make the Playoffs in what was one of their most disappointing seasons.

Then the other big factor was that Anthony Davis was missing for too long and that deteriorated the team in big ways. His health will again be a big factor. The team added Dennis Schroeder to bring in some guard depth whereas Kendrick Nunn can help them to provide the much-needed iso scoring. The team doesn’t have a big-name Center with Thomas Bryant and Damion Jones but Anthony Davis will log a bunch of minutes as a big anyway.

Minnesota was a happy surprise last season and their offensive play was taken to another level. The main reason for that was Anthony Edwards who became the most consistent iso threat for the Wolves. They already have been receiving multiple-faceted scoring from Anthony-Towns who will now be aided by Rudy Gobert. Gobert’s addition will help the defense inside and also the rebounding end. Rudy can also provide inside offense.

D’Angelo Russell will benefit from the set-up considering the physical screens and the inside-outside spacing will help him get open looks. Patrick Beverley isn’t with the team anymore so the defensive output will be reliant on the team's defense and the perimeter defense can be a concern. Last season too, the team was losing focus on defense during key phases, and that was fully on display during their series versus the Grizzlies.

Since this is a Preseason game, a set analysis is a waste of time. Both teams can end up resting their key players and then what do we have? A full-blown bench battle and that can go either way. Both teams must be looking forward to what lies during Regular Season and the Lakers will have to tackle a lot of haters. Still, for the sake of it, I will take the Lakers to win this one.