In his final 2 seasons with the Timberwolves, D’Angelo Russell started all 119 games he played in. He stated after being traded to the Lakers that the Wolves “held him back”. Tonight he is coming off the bench for the Lakers in part due to poor play against the Wolves.

D’Lo is the second most controversial Timberwolves player of the last 10 years. One of his first games with the Wolves actually involved him doing a game winning block on the number one most controversial player endeering him immediately to the fanbase. However, his tenure left alot to be desired with the Wolves seemingly only trading for him in the first place to keep star Karl Anthony-Towns happy and to also offload Andrew Wiggins.

D’lo’s Wolves career was weird. He kept them in some games and shot out them out of more. There was the good like the “I love Minnesota” tweets and he represented them on the draft lottery night broadcast where the Wolves landed the pick they would use on franchise altering star Anthony Edwards. But there was the Bad like his beef with expensive new addition Rudy Gobert whom the wolves success now relied on.

In the 4 seasons D’Angelo Russell was with the Minnesota Timberwolves he started 157 of the 173 games he played. In early 2021, D’Lo missed 16 starts due to rehabbing a knee surgery with a promise he would return to the starting lineup after a few games of ramping up minutes (which did happen). This was the only time D’Lo came off the bench for the Wolves.

At the 2022 trade deadline, the D’Lo era in Minnesota ended. In a 3 team trade with the Lakers and Jazz. The Wolves got Mike Conley, Nickel Alexander-Walker and picks, The Lakers got D’Lo, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt (the latter of the two a part of the previously mentioned Gobert trade), and the Jazz got Westbrook (who would be waived), Damian Jones, Juan Toscano-Anderson, and the Lakers 2027 1st round pick (top 4 protected).

Come the playoffs the Lakers and Wolves had two very different vibes. The Wolves were an injured team that barely scraped in with 2 major players out for the playoffs: Naz Reid. and Jaden McDaniels. McDaniels injury came after he punched a concrete wall out of frustration after Gobert punched teammate Kyle Anderson. The Lakers however, were on cloud 9. They had made an incredible turnaround and made the play-in to everybody’s surprise. As fate would have it, the Wolves and Lakers faced each other in the first play-in.

Despite D’Lo going 1-9 from the field and 0-4 from 3, The Lakers won a nail biter which saw Mike Conley send it to OT by making all 3 of his FTs after AD fouled him when the game was all but won for LA. The Lakers would move on to Memphis and the Wolves would move on to OKC in the second play-in where they would win in a blowout sending them to face the Nuggets.

The Wolves lost that Nuggets series in 5 but the Wolves defense against Jokic was pointed out as a highlight of the series. Things looked okay for the Wolves going into 2023-2024.

The Lakers would go on to dominate Memphis and upset the Warriors. This was accomplished in large part to the trade acquisitions including D’Lo who had incredible series clinching game 6 against Memphis where he dropped 31 points on 12-17 from the field and 5-9 from 3.

During the Warriors series, D’lo would state the Wolves “held him back”. He would then follow this quote with a stinker of a game where he went 1-10 from the field. Despite this the Lakers would make the WCF facing the Nuggets where D’Lo would shoot a combined 10-31 from the field and 2-15 from 3. He shot them out of the playoffs. However the outlook for the Lakers entering 2023-2024 was great.

The Nuggets would go on to win the Championship with the Nuggets coach Michael Malone & Bruce Brown saying the Timberwolves were the hardest opponent during their run. This would be a tonesetter for the upcoming season.

The Wolves are now one of the greatest teams in the NBA this season known for their style of play which emphasizes suffocating team defense anchored by DPOY favorite Rudy Gobert.

The Lakers are a team that seems to hover around .500 and have really high highs and bad lows. Their success is reliant on a 38 year old LeBron and an Anthony Davis who is trying to pick up what LeBron no longer can. However despite incredible play from both they are being let down by a supporting cast that is struggling to replicate what allowed the Lakers to go on that incredible postseason run with D’Lo being a major part of said problem shooting under 50% from the field on the year.

This coalesced when the Lakers who were on a 1-3 stretch following their IST win including a loss to the Spurs that snapped the Spur’s 18 game losing streak faced the 20-6 Wolves where D’Lo scored 17pts on 7-19 from the field. This performance looks better than it actually is due to 6 of those points being from 2 garbage time 3s after the Wolves locked up the win.

This loss combined with a post game comment where D’Lo stated the Lakers cant rely on his defense because [“that’s not what I do”](https://youtu.be/m9GFqB0zhVM?si=3cj47KPoXWqSL1Lb) he would be moved to the bench.

It is official, The Lakers are now holding back D’Angelo Russell.

edit: his first game with the wolves was against Toronto

by Sp_Gamer_Live