MINNEAPOLIS — Anthony Davis scored 17 of his 38 points in the fourth quarter and grabbed 17 rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers beat Minnesota 123-111 and pounced on the Timberwolves Friday night in a packed Western Conference. Playoff race.
“You have to have that pivotal force leading the offense, and in our case with this particular team here at the moment, it’s AD,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “When he comes out and he’s aggressive and we feed him and he doesn’t settle and he hits the paint, he hits the rim, we find ourselves having a lot of success.”
LeBron James added 18 points and 10 rebounds, and D’Angelo Russell scored 12 points and 10 assists against his former team, to achieve the Lakers (39-38) winning for the fifth time in six games, to move to seventh place. They even with New Orleans, own the tiebreaker head-to-head over the Pelicans.
“We’ve had some huge climbs, but we’re not done,” said Davis, who scored 38 points Wednesday in the win over Chicago. “We are hungry not only to do the playoffs but also to make some noise.”
The Lakers have improved to 9-4 since losing at home to Wolverhampton on March 3.
“We jumped on AD’s back, and he brought us home,” said James.
Mike Conley had 25 points on 7-for-11 shooting with seven assists before losing, and Carl Anthony Towns scored 23 for the Timberwolves (39-39), who fell to ninth. They went into the evening one game behind Golden State and the cut to avoid championship play, with the Warriors later knocked out at home against San Antonio.
Davis scored 12 consecutive Lakers points over a 3:52 period late in the fourth quarter to pull off a steely comeback from a 13-point deficit shortly after halftime. He made five baskets in a row with Wolverhampton center Rudy Gobert on the bench, dominating on the glass, in the post and on the edge.
“He’s playing at a very high level now,” said Wolverhampton manager Chris Finch.
The Lakers took over earlier with a 24-2 spurt 6:49 into the third quarter with their defense on lockout. Conley’s turn to rest on the bench during that tour was ill-timed. Davis spun his left ankle around the start of a Lakers rush, a breath-holding sequence that seemed to energize the visitors.
“We started turning the ball around, and the ball started sticking a lot more,” Joubert said. “We kind of lost our flow offensively, and that really affected our defence.”
Wolves, whose benches are shortened without center Nas Reed and his crew broken wristwent 2-for-14 from 3-point range in the third quarter and was outscored 35-18 in a frustrating stretch of a fiery crowd that included local sports stars Justin Jefferson and Kirill Kaprizov on floor benches.
feeling better
James rebuilds his stamina from absence for a month To a torn tendon in his right foot, the second time with this new starting lineup with Davis, Russell, Austin Reeves and Jared Vanderbilt picking up a second win to start this five-game wild ride.
“I’ll be in the lineup on Sunday, so that’s the best response I can get,” said James.
For his part, Davis said he finished the game on an adrenaline level and it would be nice if he played on Sunday as well.
stop whistle
Can Joubert ($25,000) and Finch ($15,000) fined by the NBA To criticize the body wed post Lost in Phoenix When the Suns had 27 free throw attempts and the Wolves had 12. This time, they went to the line 19 times — making 16 — and the Lakers made 30 attempts.
Tip-ins
Lakers: Vanderbilt scored 12 points. … Another former Wolverhampton player, Malik Beasley, had three three-pointers in the first quarter.
Timberwolves: Anthony Edwards scored 11 points on 4-for-16 shooting. … Joubert had 14 points and 11 rebounds.
the next
Lakers: In Houston on Sunday night.
Timberwolves: Hosts Portland on Sunday.
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