NBA fans bring up controversial refereeing in LA's favor after glaring stat vs Wolves - "But Lakers fans swear the league hates them"

The LA Lakers lost their first game of the NBA playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday. Minnesota won 117-95 after sinking a franchise playoff record 21 3-pointers, despite Luka Doncic’s 37-point playoff debut for the Lakers. LA lost the game but fans still pointed out that the whistle blew in their favor instead of the Timberwolves.

Fans noticed that Minnesota had 21 fouls blown against them. In comparison, LA only had 10. Following the final whistle, fans took to social media to call out Lakers fans for suggesting that the whistle always blows against them:

“But Lakers fans swear the league hates them and will never fail to not bring up that one random regular season game vs the Celtic.” One fan said.

“Edwards truly has a terrible whistle,” said another fan.

“If the wolves were allowed to play defense with the same level of physicality that was allowed vs the nuggets last year, it would've been a 40 point blowout,” a fan opined.

One fan pointed towards the fact that Austin Reaves ended up shooting more free throws than Anthony Edwards, saying:

“For reaves to have more ft than ant is crazy.”

Another fan commented on Jarred Vanderbilt ending his night with 0 fouls despite his physical play, saying:

“0 personal fouls. farm-raised, non-GMO, organic, free-range.”

“Vando is a whole hack out there.” Another fan said.

Despite getting an unfavorable whistle, the Timberwolves showed up in a big way to take a 1-0 series lead over LeBron James and Co. Anthony Edwards finished his night with 22 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid were also key, finishing with 25 and 23 points, respectively.

Only three players from the LA Lakers scored 10+ points against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday

Heading into the playoffs, many argued that LeBron James and Co. would struggle because of their defensive deficiencies. However, game one of the first round of the Western Conference also showed a lack of offense from LA. Luka Doncic led the team with 37 points and eight rebounds. After him, LeBron James had the best game with 19 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Austin Reaves added 16 points, three rebounds and three assists. Apart from these three, none of the other players managed to reach double digits in points. Guys like Dorian Finney-Smith, Jarred Vanderbilt, Jaxson Hayes and Rui Hachimura will need to step up in a big way if LA hopes to defeat the Wolves.