Jaden McDaniels, Anthony Edwards spark Timberwolves in clutch to beat Lakers, take 2-1 series lead

It was tied 103-103 with 4:37 left in Game 3, but the Lakers had two of the best clutch players the league has ever seen on the floor in LeBron James and Luka Doncic.

The Timberwolves had Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid and that was all they needed.

Minnesota closed the game on a 13-1 run behind their clutch trio to get the win.

Minnesota took a 2-1 series lead in front of a raucous crowd in Minnesota Friday night. Game 4 is Sunday in Minnesota.

Edwards is expected to be the engine for the Timberwolves and he lived up to that, scoring or assisting on nine straight points in the clutch. He finished with 29 points, scoring or assisting on 48 points.

McDaniels is the bellwether so far in this series. He had 25 points and nine rebounds while playing elite defense in Game 1 (a Minnesota win), and on Friday night he scored 30.

The other move critical move in the clutch was Minnesota coach Chris Finch subbing out Rudy Gobert for Naz Reid. This wasn’t about Gobert’s defense (the Lakers were 6-of-13 shooting with him as the primary defender on the night) but more about the offense. Having Gobert on the floor gave a place for J.J. Redick to hide a defender and someone to help off of when Edwards drove the lane. With Reid out there, that hiding space went away, and Reid hit a clutch 3-pointer as well. More importantly, the Timberwolves’ defense didn’t suffer. It was a real risk by Finch, the lineup he closed the game with (Edwards, McDaniels, Reid, Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo) had a -8.9 net rating in the regular season, but the playoffs are all about matchups, and it worked against the Lakers.

Doncic was clearly slowed, playing through a stomach issue that had him vomiting much of the day and had him on the verge of missing the game, but he still finished with 17 points and eight assists.

LeBron picked up the slack with an impressive 38-point outing.

“He was incredible. He did everything he could in his power to try to will them to a win,” Edwards said of LeBron.

“He was shooting it from Yucatan. For sure, he was shooting it crazy… I’m not gonna lie, it was fun to be competing against him today for sure.”

Expect an even more energized LeBron on Sunday in what becomes an almost must-win game for Los Angeles, it can’t go down 3-1 and come out of this series.

However, that was a confidence-boosting, “we got this” kind of win for Minnesota. It believes it is the best team in this series, the deeper and better squad. The one that went to the conference finals a year ago. And those Timberwolves are going to believe Game 4 belongs to them.