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Lakers Fall Off in Tale of Two Halves

Kyle Kuzma isn’t the type to ask to be removed from a game. So it was strange for Luke Walton when his star rookie told him, “You gotta get me out,” in the third quarter of Friday’s loss to Minnesota.

A sprained ankle cost Kuzma the rest of the night (and possibly the final three games of the season), and the Lakers weren’t able to recover, as their seven-point halftime lead dissolved into a 113-96 defeat.

The Lakers started out hot thanks to a human furnace named Brook Lopez.

The 7-footer bullied Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns in the post and hit two 3-pointers in the opening six minutes, scoring all of the Lakers’ first 15 points of the game.

With Lopez leading the charge, the Lakers took a 58-51 lead into the half.

However, the Timberwolves — who are currently a half-game up in the race for the Western Conference’s final playoff spot — stormed out of the locker room in the third quarter.

They took a three-point advantage by the time that Kuzma exited the game.

Kuzma had hurt his left ankle on a post move in the second quarter, but tried to play through it in the third. The “throbbing” pain and inability to put weight on his ankle resulted in him departing the court halfway through the period.

The rookie has also dealt with an ailing right ankle all season.

“I tried to move and push around, but it was kind of hard to move around on two flat tires,” he said.

Minnesota (45-35) continued to pour it on from there, outscoring the Lakers by 24 in the second half and securing a season sweep.

The Lakers (34-45) received strong offensive efforts from Josh Hart (20 points, 11 rebounds) and Julius Randle (20 points, 10 rebounds), but they were unable to take care of the ball.

The Wolves — who were led by 25 points from Jeff Teague — committed only five turnovers and forced 21 from the Lakers. As a result, they were able to put up 21 more shot attempts.

Notes
Before the game, the Lakers unveiled a statue of franchise legend Elgin Baylor outside of STAPLES Center. … Lopez finished with 18 points. … Karl-Anthony Towns and Taj Gibson both had double-doubles for Minnesota. … A crowd of 18,997 — including Baylor, Jack Nicholson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic — sold out the arena.