LOS ANGELES — The Lakers were beaten — and battered, limping all the way to the finish line.
It was abundantly clear early on it would take a monstrous effort to stave off elimination from the Minnesota Timberwolves and send this series back to Minneapolis. And for stretches of Wednesday’s game it appeared both teams took turns telling the other “put me out of my misery, please!”
The Timberwolves, with one of the most anemic shooting nights in the history of the NBA playoffs, still stayed in control for the entire night—never once giving off the feeling the Lakers would be accompanying them back to Minnesota for a Game 6.