Well, they still couldn’t get it done. There were times when the game was close but the Wolves never did relinquish the lead for about the last 21 minutes of the contest. As a result, the Lakers failed to win for the fifth time in five games, 111-102.

A couple of hours prior to the contest, Anthony Davis was said to be out for the game with back soreness. It was also announced that Russell Westbrook would return but would come off the bench for the first time since his rookie year (which was the 2008-09 season). Troy Brown, Jr. would get the starting spot and Austin Reaves went back to the pine.

But even with Damian Jones coming in for Davis, the Wolves still sported a very tall line-up with Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, and 6’9″ Jaden McDaniels covering the frontcourt. And Minnesota tried to take advantage by going to Gobert often early on.

Westbrook started off cold by missing his first five shots. And then we saw the Russell of old do his thing in the latter half of the second quarter. He scored 10 points in the last four minutes of the second quarter. We even got a nice give-and-go between Brodie and the King.

The Lakers were winning on the boards and even shooting pretty decently from three in the first half. They scored the last 7 points of the half to tie it up, which was very reminiscent of their game against Denver.

L.A. would hold the lead very momentarily in the third. And then Anthony Edwards took over, scoring 16 of his 29 points in the third quarter. Still, it felt like it was too much Edwards as the Lakers kept it close. It was nice to see guys like Reaves, Wenyen Gabriel, and Lonnie Walker IV making offensive contributions.

Then KAT started eating in the fourth. He put in 14 of his 21 points in that last period. But the Lakers just couldn’t get over the hump as they kept turning the ball over. The Wolves would put a screeching halt to the Lakers’ hopeful rallies. Edwards would make a three. KAT meowed himself a three. And with LeBron playing the 5, they couldn’t stop Gobert from getting easy buckets and rebounds. His dunk put them up 7. And then a putback lay-up would give them an 8-point cushion with under a minute left. The Lakers take another punch to the face and go home with an 0-5 slate.

The Lakers seemed to have done a lot of things right. They held the Wolves to .414 shooting. They outboarded them, 55-49. They finally shot… well… above atrocious from three at a .310 clip (9 for 29). But they gave away 22 of their possessions. It’s no wonder they couldn’t wrest the lead away in the fourth quarter. Gobert had a 20/20 experience with 22 points and 21 boards. We mentioned that Edwards had 29 points and KAT had 21-8-7. Taurean Prince led the Wolves bench with 13 points, 5 boards, and three thefts.

LeBron was pretty aggressive offensively but it wasn’t enough. He led the Lakers with 28 points. Westbrook came off the pine to get 18 points and 8 boards; it worked pretty well that we might see this happen again. Brown had 12 points (4/6 from three!) but had three costly turnovers in the fourth. Reaves also scored a dozen. If you want a silver lining, LeBron James now has the most 20-point career games in NBA history.

So it all comes down to this: taking care of the ball. One of these days, the Lakers will put it all together and get that W. But something will have to give very soon as the Lakers continue to sink into the abyss. The Orlando Magic won earlier in the night so that only leaves the Lakers and the Kings as the only winless teams left in the season.

I don’t know what will happen first: the Lakers winning a game or *NSYNC getting back together. But at this rate, I don’t count either thing happening anytime soon. Bye bye bye.