Lakers’ playoff hopes take another hit after comeback fades vs. Minnesota

The first of a five-game homestand for the Lakers began with a significant contest on Friday night against the talented and athletic Minnesota Timberwolves, one of the three teams ahead of L.A. for the play-in tournament.

The Lakers will play this stretch without LeBron James, who will be reevaluated in three weeks after it was announced on Thursday that the forward has a right foot tendon injury.

The Lakers also didn’t have starting point guard D’Angelo Russell, who missed his fourth straight game with a right ankle sprain.

But the Lakers did get Anthony Davis back after he missed Wednesday night’s game at Oklahoma City because the team was taking precautionary measures with his right foot stress injury. It didn’t matter as the Lakers fell to Minnesota 110-102.

Through three quarters, Davis had carried the Lakers with 29 points, three rebounds and two assists. But he had six turnovers, accounting for too many of the 11 the Lakers had as a team.

The Lakers trailed the Timberwolves 83-76 by the end of the third.

Rudy Gobert had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds and Anthony Edwards had 16 points through the first three quarters for the Timberwolves.

The Lakers shot 40.3% from the field through three quarters, 28.6% from three-point range. The Timberwolves shot 47.7% from the field and 41.7% from three-point range through the first three quarters.

Entering the game against the Timberwolves, the Lakers were in the 11th spot in the tough Western Conference.

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards puts up a shot in the first half Friday.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

Lakers coach Darvin Ham said they are aware of where they stand in the race for a top-10 spot in the West.

“But I mean, I tell the team, ‘The first order of business is to take care of our own business.’ It doesn’t matter what the standings say if we’re letting games slip away or not doing what we need to do to make sure we’re in a position to take advantage of an opportunity,” Ham said. “So, that’s the biggest thing for us. We just need to focus on our business and everything else will fall into place like it should.”

It won’t be easy for the Lakers with James missing at least the next 10 games or so.

He has started his rehabilitation, doing all he can to get back for the Lakers to help them in their quest to at least reach the play-in games.

“There is no update and his situation is what it is,” Ham said. “And if it wasn’t for him and his play, we wouldn’t be this close to have a chance to improve going forward. So, just want him to take his time and be aligned with the medical staff and do what he needs to do to get back as quickly as possible…We have to step up, all of us.”

The Lakers will get Russell back sooner than James, but when that will happen remains unsure

Russell started some “play groups” on Friday, Ham said, and still is working his way back.

“We don’t want to have a guy go from not playing an NBA game to throwing him back out there,” Ham said. “There are steps such as play groups that we have to see how he responds to that, how his body responds, specifically his ankle. So, we’ll go through that, and he’s in the process of doing all of that.”

Unfortunately for Russell, he missed playing against his former team.

The Lakers acquired for Russell from Minnesota to be their starting point guard.

But his new Lakers teammates, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt, both played on the Timberwolves’ team that made the playoffs last season with Russell.

Beasley and Vanderbilt were traded to the Jazz last summer, and they were acquired by the Lakers last month.

Beasley had 10 points on four-for-nine shooting and two-for-five on three-pointers through three quarters. Vanderbilt had five points and four rebounds.