The Lakers only have one true center in their rotation — Jaxson Hayes, a career-long reserve who starts for Los Angeles but generally plays less than 20 minutes a game.
And he’s certainly not a member of the Lakers’ best five-man grouping. Included in that collection is LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith. That’s a lineup that features ample shot creation, scoring and enough length — everyone but Reaves features a wing span of 7 feet or better — to be bothersome defensively.
It’s the type of lineup that would figure to give Minnesota problems, but the Wolves potentially have one large advantage in that spot — specifically, the center spot. And large is exactly how Rudy Gobert has played over the final quarter of the season.
Over the past 11 games of the regular season Gobert averaged 18.5 points and 14.5 rebounds for Minnesota as he dominated physically overmatched opponents.
After the center got off to a slow start to the season, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch believes Gobert may have been in a “lower gear” to open the campaign after consecutive summers spent playing international basketball. He said Gobert told the team before and after the all-star break that he knew what needed to happen to return to playing to his potential.
And he’s done just that.
“I just think, you know, I got in a little groove by trying to be more aggressive, try to really set the tone for this team,” Gobert said. “And obviously the importance of the moment and importance of every single game down the stretch, I think, probably allowed me to play at an even higher level.”
The Lakers are certainly better than any team Minnesota saw in that span, but even 80% of Gobert’s his end-of-season production would go a long way toward the Wolves winning the first-round series that starts Saturday in Los Angeles.
Can he reach that? Not if you listen to national podcast conversations, which suggest that Gobert will struggle against the Lakers’ “small-ball” approach and force Finch to look for alternative lineup options.
Never mind that Gobert has been serviceable this season in isolation defense, per NBA.com. He allows 0.99 points per possession in such spots. And while that’s certainly up from the 0.73 ppp he allowed a year ago, even the number surrendered this year is better than, say, the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama. Many players have tried and failed to size Gobert up on the perimeter.
“Some of these narratives are cheap. They’re easy. They grab a hold of them and just spin them all the time,” Finch said. “But if you study what’s really going on, what the numbers might say, or being true to yourself in a lot of ways and trusting in why that’s been good to you, then I think there’s a lot of value in that.”
Why does perception veer so far from reality? Because anecdotes reverberate in the minds of all. There were playoff games during his time in Utah in which Gobert was “exploited” by opposing five-out lineups where he had to sprint out to shooters — Terance Mann and Maxi Kleber come to mind — then rush back to the paint to prevent layups.
Then, of course, there’s the end of Game 2 of last year’s Western Conference Finals, when Doncic got Gobert on a switch and buried a difficult step-back triple in his face to give the Mavericks a 2-0 series lead. When that moment appeared in Doncic’s tribute video this month in his post-trade return to Dallas, the star admitted he got emotional.
Gobert noted his detractors have probably seen that clip “a thousand times.”
“So did I,” he said. “But, you know, this is one clip amongst a lot of other defensive possessions. That’s why I know a lot of people don’t like the numbers, but … I mean, over a long period of time the numbers speak more than the eye test.
“You know it’s going to be up to us to be able to be consistent with our approach. … I’m very likely to be crossed over. Very likely people are going to hit some tough shots over me, and then I might get dunked on. All this stuff might happen, but let’s see what happens over the course of hundreds and hundreds of possessions.”
Gobert noted he doesn’t have try to rewrite any narratives. The center has reached the point in his career where he is comfortable and confident in who he is and how he impacts winning. “I’m really worried about setting the tone, being myself and letting the game take care of itself,” he said.
Protect the paint. Grab rebounds. Finish at the rim. Make the right plays when the ball comes your way. If Gobert checks all of those boxes, he’ll be an integral part of Minnesota’s success in the series, regardless of which lineups the Lakers trot out.
“Rudy’s going to have to be huge, I think he knows that. I think he’s prepared himself for this for the last couple months,” Wolves guard Mike Conley said. “He’s really worked himself into great shape. He looked really good the last few weeks of the season, and we know we’re going to have to utilize him a lot, whether that’s him in the dunker or in the post or underneath the rim, lob threat or crashing the glass.”
And, Conley noted, on defense against any group.
“The whole point, I think, in the playoffs and basketball and anything is to try to force the other team to adapt to you,” Gobert said, “and not the other way around.”
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