Minnesota Timberwolves vs Los Angeles Lakers Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 04/19/25

The fashion in which the Minnesota Timberwolves ended the regular season gives the even most pessimistic T’Wolves fan optimism that they can make noise in their 1st Round match-up vs the Lakers. Rudy Gobert posted 18.8 points and 14.9 rebounds over his final 10 games, Julius Randle appears to have overcome his injury concerns from earlier in the year and Anthony Edwards is just doing Anthony Edwards things. It all comes down to defense for the Wolves in this series. Since the beginning of March, Minnesota ranked 7th in defensive efficiency, while their opponent is only 18th during that same exact stretch. However, the question is can the Wolves contain Luka Doncic individually? One thing is for sure, with 8 wins in 10 road games they have every right to hope for a split in the opening two games of this series at Crypto.com Arena.

For the first time since 2012 the Lakers will be at home for Game 1 of their 1st Round series. That must feel really good for a team that has gone through so much change this season, the Lakers are exactly on the side of the bracket they wanted to be. The experience is on their side here, at least from an individual standpoint. We all still remember what Luka Doncic did to them in last season’s West Finals, I am sure he is in for a warm welcome in Games 3 and 4 at Target Center. LeBron James has played in a ton of these games already, so this is nothing new to him. Head coach JJ Redick has successfully masked all of his deficiencies on the defensive end, LeBron no longer has to be the number one fiddle on offense for this team to succeed.

Game 1 could go in a lot of directions, but if we are to judge this match-up from the regular season series then having home court could prove to be the difference here. The Lakers won the only meeting post the Luka trade in late February, but points were hard to come by for both teams in that game. I expect a gritty series opener, so let’s go with the under here.

Timberwolves vs Lakers Game 1 Predictions: Under 216.5 is available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.