A plethora of mistakes and a stomach flu hampered Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers‘ road playoff battle against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Anthony Edwards and Co. punished every mistake and sailed to the tune of the home crowd. The Purple and Gold got buried under the noise, resulting in a 1-2 disadvantage with another road game yet to go. A bright spot, though, was LeBron James.

He was reminiscent of his vintage ‘Playoff LeBron’ mode against the Timberwolves tonight. His fourth quarter exhibition in the 38-point performance gave the Lakers a fighting chance. But in the last four minutes, they went scoreless. A 13-1 run by the Timberwolves, inspired by Ant-Man, knocked the brakes off the Lakers. However, it came to that point because of their mishaps.

“Well first of all I mean in the postseason there is no room for error… Obviously you’re not going to play a perfect game. But the more that you make mistakes on top of mistakes on top of mistakes, you know things that can be controlled then it’s not going to give you an opportunity to be in the best possible chance to win. And 13 more goes at the rim than we did. Pretty much that’s the game right there. We had 78 attempts, they had 91,” James said about the reason for their loss.

Turnovers brought about the situation. The Lakers committed 19 turnovers today, giving the Timberwolves regular possessions. Ultimately, they took a 15-point advantage in points off turnovers. Additionally, with Doncic unable to fuel the game as he did in LA, the Wolves’ defense was especially active tonight.

In the playoffs, the margin for error is razor-thin. Every game offers moments for both teams to seize control—and once you grab it, the challenge is holding on. The Timberwolves had their slips along the way, but when it mattered most, they tightened up, turned up the intensity, and closed the game out for good.

LeBron James defends Jaxson Hayes

Aside from turnovers and their breakdowns, the Lakers had another problem. Wolves shot just 38% from the field in Game 2; however, today they shot close to 50%. Their strategy changed, choosing to attack the rim and pressure the Lakers’ defense. Ideally, they cover the spaces. But tonight, Jaden McDaniels used his length and wingspan to break the perimeter.

That left a struggling Jaxson Hayes to man the paint. The series hasn’t been kind to him. In close to 9 minutes, he was a -13 for the game. He stood his ground and avoided fouling. But the Timberwolves have great slashers like Randle and Ant who can exploit a weak shot blocker. That led to 56 coming inside the paint for them.

It raised doubts on Hayes’ ability to supply as a starting center for a playoff team. However, rather than blaming one man, LeBron James is looking for improvement across the board.

“I mean we all just got to be better. Obviously Jaxson is not, well tonight he played 8 minutes. It’s not even enough to kind of dissect to see what we can get out of it. But we just all need to be better. We got to rebound better, we got to screen better, we got to play with more force. When we’ve been really really good, Jax has played extremely well for us. And we still believe in him, and hopefully he can continue to go into the rest of the series,” he said about the Lakers’ performance.

Without Anthony Davis anchoring the defense, the Lakers typically thrive by crowding the perimeter and funneling drives into help defense. Tonight, that plan unraveled. Jaxson Hayes, left isolated far too often, was forced into one-on-one situations he isn’t built to handle alone.

Hayes is a mobile, athletic center who excels when he can scramble, contest, and rotate—not when he’s tasked with locking down the paint single-handedly. But the real issue wasn’t him—it was the Lakers’ overall defensive breakdown.

If there’s any hope of tying the series, the Lakers must tighten their rotations and stop Minnesota’s explosive athletes from slicing through the cracks they exposed tonight.