March 8, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) and New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) react in the second half at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images The Lakers have already wrapped up their season series with the Minnesota Timberwolves and will look to beat their Western Conference rivals in Tuesday night’s game in Los Angeles.
The two teams haven’t met since the second week of the season in October. The Lakers defeated the Timberwolves 128-110 in Los Angeles in the second game of the season for both teams, and then won 116-115 in Minneapolis five days later.
The Lakers’ Luka Doncic scored 49 points in the Lakers’ 18-point win on Oct. 24. This remains his most points of the season.
The standings could be pivotal for the Lakers, who have already won two of their three games. The Timberwolves are in third place in the conference, with the Lakers one game behind them in fifth.
Los Angeles recorded its fifth win in its last six games with a 110-97 home win over the New York Knicks on Sunday. Doncic had 35 points and eight rebounds, and Austin Reaves added 25 points as LeBron James was sidelined with a left elbow bruise and left foot soreness.
Los Angeles led 97-74 with 10:33 left and never saw the advantage fall below double digits the rest of the game.
“I thought we played hard, stuck to the game plan and competed,” Reaves said. “That was it. I thought we played harder than they did, set the tone early and had a really good third quarter.”
Center Deandre Ayton returned after missing the previous seven quarters in Los Angeles due to left knee soreness and grabbed eight rebounds in 20 minutes.
If James misses Tuesday’s game, he will miss all three regular season games against Minnesota after starting the season with sciatica.
The Timberwolves ended their five-game winning streak with a 119-92 home loss against the Orlando Magic on Saturday. Anthony Edwards scored 34 points, but Jaden McDaniels and Donte DiVincenzo combined to go 0-of-15 from the field.
Minnesota shot 35.7% from the field and 22.5% (9 of 40) on 3-pointers, posting its worst season in both categories. It was the second-lowest score for the Timberwolves.
“I didn’t think we were good at finishing around the rim,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “The 3s looked really deep. It looked like a shoot-up type of 3s. … There wasn’t really any rhythm to the offense.”
The Wolves were called for 21 to 24 fouls on the Magic, but Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert said his team was complaining too much to the officials.
“We weren’t the team we wanted to be mentally.” Gobert said. “We have to be more resilient, whether it’s a bad call, a missed shot or when things don’t go our way. Yes, we have to be stronger.”
Edwards appeared in only the first scheduled game against the Lakers and scored 31 points. He missed the game for the first time in five days after missing four games due to a right hamstring injury.
–Field level media
