The beauty of a surprise is nothing short of amazing and thrilling. It is something you really don’t expect to occur or can’t see coming. Surprises are mostly used in positive connotation and with good news such as acceptance into a university or job, finding out that you had the winning ticket of a lottery or that someone you care about is having a child. But in my case, the most intimate surprises have come with news of heading to a sporting event like a basketball game as a birthday present. My birthday occurs on Feb. 5 every year and it is perfect timing for both the NBA and college basketball seasons as those leagues are in the second halves of their seasons. For so many years, my father has surprised me with tickets to games for our favorite teams that play on the hardwood for birthday gifts and Christmas gifts as well. However, an even greater surprise occurred on Sat. Apr. 19, the day before Easter Sunday, when I found out that we would be attending the second game of a first-round playoff series for the Los Angeles Lakers, who were slated to play the Minnesota Timberwolves. I could not believe that we were attending a Tuesday night playoff game at Crypto.com Arena(formerly STAPLES Center) for the Lakers, who had a very solid regular season after acquiring one of the biggest stars in the basketball world. Playoff tickets don’t come cheap- especially for one of the most storied franchises in American sports history- but thankfully on the ticket resale market my dad was able to find two tickets in the nosebleeds of the arena for us to sit in. And I couldn’t have been more happy and proud of him for doing that. I owe his gratitude and sports fandom to my ability to see so many great moments(and a few not-so-great ones) throughout the years of my life attending sporting events.

Fifteen years is the time length that I have spent in attending Lakers games with my dad and none of them had ever been a playoff game. That is, until the night of Tue. Apr. 22, 2025. We had seen an earlier game in this season in February as a birthday gift, in which we witnessed the Lakers defeat the Indiana Pacers and we were hoping that it would be the Lakers debut of Luka Doncic, who had recently been acquired from the Dallas Mavericks in an absolutely-insane trade of the century. But the Doncic 77 Lakers jerseys weren’t decked on the seats and Doncic did not play. Neither did LeBron James, who was resting due to an ankle injury on his aging 40-year old body. Thankfully, Austin Reaves had the game of his basketball life and scored 45 points to lift the Lakers to a seven-point victory over Indiana. I had yet to see “Luka Magic” play live in-person, but for the next two months I bore witness to his dazzling style of play with stepback jumpers and perfect penetration into the paint by watching Lakers games on TV and listening to some on the radio. The Lakers propelled themselves to a higher position in the Western Conference standings and were able to secure a playoff berth without having to go through the daunted Play-In Tournament. As the 3 seed in the West, the Purple & Gold were going to be paired with whoever secured the number-six seed and that team happened to be the Minnesota Timberwolves, who gained that coveted sixth spot on the final day of the regular season.

The Wolves had almost made it to the NBA Finals in the previous year’s NBA playoffs, being defeated in the Western Conference Finals by the Dallas Mavericks, who obviously had Luka Doncic on their team. Minnesota is led by their star player in guard Anthony Edwards, who has put on some highlight reels of athletic feats in the five seasons that he has played so far in his career. Edwards has gained the superhero nickname “Ant-Man” and has galvanized a long-struggling franchise in the North Star State, a state that the Lakers used to call home. Other key players around Edwards include forward Julius Randle, center Rudy Gobert, guard Mike Conley and forward Naz Reid. The head coach of the Timberwolves is Chris Finch, who had to coach the plurality of his team’s postseason run last year behind the bench due to a leg injury that he suffered against the Phoenix Suns in their 2024 first-round series. Minnesota is a worthy opponent, having beaten the Lakers twice previously in the regular season, and they would come out with an aggressive approach in Game 1 of this first-round series. After a solid first quarter by the Lakers, the Wolves took over in the second quarter, making an insane amount of three-point shots while dominating with rebounds and stifling defense. Leading by as many as 26 points, Minnesota held off a late comeback bid by the Lakers and won the game 117-95. In spite of Luka Doncic scoring 37 points, the Lakers were held in check and defeated in Game 1 of a playoff series yet again. But losing Game 1 is rarely the end for the Purple & Gold in a playoff series, they have made more comebacks from down 1-0 in playoff series than any other franchise in NBA history. Game 2 would be huge though because the Lakers could not afford to go north to Minneapolis down 2-0.

After a couple days of rest and preparation, the Lakers were ready to play in this must-win game. And I was ready to go, as this was the latest date in a season that I had ever attended a Lakers game. The previous latest date was April 12 and that was in 2013, when I witnessed an incredible battle between a star player with a gilded past and a star player with a golden future. The Lakers faced the Golden State Warriors, a young and upcoming team in the West, and it was a scoring duel between Kobe Bryant and Stephen Curry. That same game was when Kobe tore his right Achilles tendon and he would never be the same player after that. I don’t think I have ever seen a more devastating injury at a sporting event that I have attended than the one suffered by the Black Mamba. The Lakers still won the game, but had lost any hope of contending in the playoffs as they were swept in a first-round series to the San Antonio Spurs, whose dynasty was still running strong at the time. The Lakers would not make it back to the playoffs until the oddly-held 2020 bubble playoffs in Orlando, Fla., when they went all the way to win a championship in the most odd environment ever because of a global pandemic. Now, 12 years after Kobe’s torn Achilles, I was going to be at my first Lakers playoff game ever.

I drove my dad and I to downtown L.A, encountering some late-day traffic as usual. We got there with plenty of time to park and eat a pregame meal at a Mexican restaurant that is located right by the arena called El Cholo. We have eaten there so many times before walking through the doors of the downtown arena that the Lakers have called home for more than a quarter-century. After walking into the arena, we went to go get some merchandise at the Team LA store(well, I bought the merch). I was hoping to buy an Austin Reaves jersey shirt, but none fit my giant large size, so I settled for a complementary Lakers sweater and a LeBron James 40,000-point banner(I was in attendance for the game when LeBron achieved that feat in 2024). We then proceeded to get to our upper deck seats, which were in Section 333 in Row 6. We were crammed in with our bigger bodies and there were fans sitting right next to us immediately. Next to me was a middle-aged man who looked like he was in his thirties or early forties(hard to tell these days with all the baby-faced individuals that have come from the Millennial and Gen-Z ranks). The pregame routines of the Lakers coming onto the court with much applause and the visiting team coming on afterwards occurred. Lakers public address announcer Lawrence Tanter, in his 42nd season announcing Lakers home games, welcomed the crowd to the CryptoDome(my nickname for Crypto.com Arena) and the national anthem was sung by a professional vocalist who Dad said sung the Star-Spangled Banner at Game 2 of the 2002 World Series for our favorite baseball team the Anaheim Angels. My dad remembers that since he was there with my mom in that thrilling Game 2 that the Angels won to even up the series and eventually win their first championship in franchise history. Hopefully the Lakers could even up this series against the Timberwolves on this Tuesday night. Also, before tipoff and after the starting lineups were announced(get to those in a bit), a legendary wrestling legend came onto the court to pump up the fans. The great Ric Flair came onto the floor and did his trademark “Woo!” chant in hyping up the rally-towel waving crowd. That was definitely some good luck from an old celebrity in a front-row crowd filled with them.

This game was not the first time I had ever seen the Lakers play against the Timberwolves. Eight years ago, I saw a younger, much-different Lakers squad face a young-and-upcoming Minnesota team that had Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Ricky Rubio as its main attractions. The Lakers were a year removed from Kobe Bryant’s retirement from his playing career and had mostly young stars such as Jordan Clarkson, Brandon Ingram and Julius Randle(who was traded from the New York Knicks in the 2024 offseason onto the Wolves). The game holds a special place in my heart not just because it was a great one but also due to the fact that I got to attend a pregame ceremony that unveiled the statue of Shaquille O’Neal outside of the arena at Star Plaza on Chick Hearn Ct. Shaq was there to receive his honorary statue and also be congratulated by fellow Lakers legends such as Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar and Derek Fisher. I was fortunate to be standing across the street in watching the ceremony with my dad as a 17-year old kid and was pumped up when the “Big ShaqStue” was unveiled. We also received replicas of the statue as a giveaway item when we walked into the arena and the game was a thriller that had to go into overtime. The Lakers won 130-119 behind the clutch shooting from Jordan Clarkson, who scored 35 points and made eight 3-pointers. None of the players who participated in that game were on the floor for this one except for Julius Randle, who scored 23 points in that game in 2017 and had 12 rebounds for a double-double. Randle had made his way from the Lakers to New Orleans to New York and via a trade with the Knicks had played his first season in Minnesota. Very odd to see Julius on the other side for a playoff game and he would be in the Wolves starting lineup alongside Anthony Edwards, Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert and fellow forward Jaden McDaniels. The Lakers starting lineup would be Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves as the guards, LeBron James and Rui Hachimura as the forwards and Jaxson Hayes at center. The Lakers were wearing their purple-numbered gold jerseys and the Wolves were wearing their standard white uniforms.

The game tipped off to much excitement from the entire crowd, with the Lakers winning the tip. The game’s first basket would be a jumper made by Jaden McDaniels, but after the Wolves drew first blood the Lakers responded right back with an alley-oop pass by LeBron being made by Hayes. Julius Randle made a layup for a 4-2 T-Wolves lead, however the Lakers finally woke up and went on a big run that lasted the rest of the first quarter. Luka made his first shot of the game on a long three-pointer that gave the Lakers the lead, with Doncic throwing an assist to LeBron on the next possession and the King made a layup for his first points of the contest. The defense would be more powerful and physical for the Lakers, who committed more fouls than in Game 1 but that was a sign of a more devoted approach from the defensive end. The physicality was coming from the Wolves’ end as well, and it would show when Rui Hachimura got hit hard in the face when a foul by the Lakers drawn by Naz Reid occurred. Rui didn’t commit the foul, but he got hit hard and would have to go to the locker room to get his face checked out. I found it odd that the refs were not reviewing that occurrence for a flagrant foul, but since the atmosphere was a playoff game they weren’t willing to go to the monitor as easily. LeBron had to return to the game after being subbed out a short while earlier and he would make another shot, with Luka making a three-pointer on the next possession to give us a 15-point lead. The Wolves called timeout and they knew that they were in trouble early on. The key to defeating Minnesota was containing Anthony Edwards and the Lakers did that in Game 1. The one thing that they had to worry about was defending efficiently against the other key players for the Wolves and that was something that did not go as well for the Purple & Gold in Game 1. This game had to be better from the defensive end and it would be.

The only other significant play that occurred in the first quarter was a play where Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt got hit in the chin by an elbow from Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo. The initial call from the referees was a foul on Vanderbilt for intruding DiVincenzo’s progress, but Lakers head coach J.J Redick would call a timeout to challenge the play. Redick was barely able to request the challenge in time as he had to come onto the court to call the timeout right as DiVincenzo was about to shoot his first free throw. The refs looked at the monitor footage and saw the extension of the arm of DiVincenzo into Vanderbilt and reversed the call, instead putting the foul on DiVincenzo, who picked up his second foul of the game(both of them offensive fouls). The Lakers had won the challenge and they would capitalize on it, with Gabe Vincent making a three-pointer at the end of the first quarter. The lead over the Wolves was 34-15, an incredible starting quarter to this must-win game for L.A. The second quarter saw the Lakers gain their biggest lead of the game, which was 22 points, and the defense continued to crack down on the Wolves as the fans chanted loudly for it. Luka Doncic had scored 16 points in the first quarter and continued to dazzle in the second quarter, with assists and rebounds being his go-to plays. The Wolves were entering foul trouble for a few of their players picking up two or even three fouls in the first half. Some good news for the Lakers was Rui Hachimura’s return into the game, but he was wearing a protective mask over his face after getting hit. Potentially having a facial fracture or a nasal fracture from that hit in the first quarter, Rui was now using a protective mask, something used by another Lakers player in protecting his face from further damage. Shooting guard Jordan Goodwin has been using a protective mask over his face due to previous facial injuries that he has suffered in his playing career, so he was wearing a mask while playing for the Lakers this season. I saw his team debut in February and was amazed by the talents of the “masked man” on the floor for us. Rui was wearing his own mask as he came onto the floor when Goodwin was still in the game.

The Purple & Gold did their best to keep the Timberwolves at arm’s length as they chipped away slightly at the massive lead that was over them. Hachimura made an and-1 bucket for a three-point play to have the Lakers first-half tally conclude at 58 and after a short shot made by Edwards the Wolves found themselves down by 15 at the half. The Lakers were up by a comfortable margin at the half and I was pleased seeing that. At halftime, an acrobatic performer wearing a Kobe Bryant Black Mamba jersey had an outstanding showing of balancing his body at different heights and with different polo sticks. He probably went up as high as 25 feet and twirled his body around while having his hands on the top of the balancing poles. An incredible performance to say the least. The second half of the game begun and it was a very defensive beginning to it. Anthony Edwards was starting to get into a groove as he and Julius Randle were the only real scorers for Minnesota. The Lakers were starting to miss shots, especially from three-point distance, as they were shooting on the basket in front of where me and Dad were sitting in the upper deck. Our view featured a slightly obstructed view of the hoop as the backboard was in the way of the rim from a side view. We have had to endure views like this in seats for Lakers games and UCLA Bruins men’s basketball games at Pauley Pavilion over the years, so we were used to it.

Things started to get very nerve-wracking when the Wolves got to within 11 points of the Lakers and Redick had to call timeout, when he tore into the team with some impassioned comments. We reestablished order with seven straight points that forced Minnesota to call timeout. Doncic helped re-extend the lead to 20 points and the lead got back up to 21, but the oddest thing happened when the Timberwolves challenged consecutive plays within 15 seconds that were fouls called on Julius Randle. The first one was a charging foul on Randle for knocking over Doncic when he shot a layup and made it. The refs overturned the call on the floor and instead called the foul on Doncic, who was wearing some fine magenta-colored sneakers. On the defensive end, Randle got called for a foul when blocking a shot taken by Austin Reaves and Chris Finch challenged that call as well. The refs looked at the monitor again and reversed the call on Randle, who was spared from picking up his fourth foul of the game a second time. That sequence definitely brought the game to a boring halt, as I got to see three coaches challenges combined between both teams and all of them were successful. The third quarter ended with the Lakers having a solid 16-point lead over Minnesota, which was down by a similar margin that the Purple & Gold were trailing by entering the fourth quarter of Game 1.

Celebrities were obviously present at the game, as they are for every big game in downtown Los Angeles. Lakers superfans such as Flea and James Goldstein were present along with celebs such as Dustin Hoffman and Jack Black, who was wearing a golden T-shirt with the Lakers golden ball logo on it. I was definitely pumped to see all the celebrities on the big screen inside the arena along with all the other fun stuff that happened during the timeouts and elongated breaks. A fan almost made the third-quarter jackpot half-court shot, having it bounce off the rim with a majestic heave. He almost got $30,000 there, I thought the jackpot should have been more than that. Another fan made a free-throw to win a stay at a resort in the Inland Empire area(I forgot which one, may have been either Pechanga or Yaamava). A couple of young boys competed with each other in a free-throw contest while wearing dinosaur masks in promoting the upcoming Jurassic World: Rebirth film coming to theaters this upcoming summer. So, the Lakers arena engagement team definitely nailed it, along with the occasional on-court appearances of the world-famous Laker Girls. Those long media timeouts gave more time for these fun activities and it was a good stress-reliever from a must-win game for the Lakers.

The fourth quarter would be nothing short of dramatic, but thankfully it was only due to the poor offense from the Purple & Gold and not the defense, which continued to be superb. The Lakers took an 18-point lead when Reaves made a mid-range jumper, but the Wolves went on a 10-3 scoring run that brought them within 11 points. The Minnesota defense was starting to force turnovers and the Lakers offense was looking stagnant, just like the end of the first half. A second-chance basket by Jaden McDaniels forced JJ Redick to call timeout with over six minutes left and a 9-point deficit. Nobody could make a three-pointer on our end and LeBron was struggling from distance. I desperately wanted them to stop taking threes and drive to the basket in order to draw fouls and score in bunches. I got my wish as LeBron made a quick transition bucket to get the lead back up to 11 and after that Julius Randle committed his fourth personal foul. This time, it would not be rescinded but the refs did go over to the monitor to see if it was flagrant because he elbowed LeBron in the face(something that happens all the time to the King and the LeHaters always think that he’s flopping when he gets back up). There was nothing flagrant about Randle’s motion and the call on the floor was an offensive foul. That made it three times that the refs went to the replay monitor to look at a play involving the former Lakers forward drafted out of Kentucky in 2014.

The Lakers looked to finish off the Wolves, who were still trying to make it a two-possession game. Thankfully, that would not happen as a crazy sequence occurred when Luka threw a bad pass that was stolen by Naz Reid, who threw it to Anthony Edwards. Ant-Man was looking to make another pass, but the ball was stolen by LeBron, who took the ball and drove it to the basket for an easy layup. The fans were pumped up to see that and I was excited to see a big play by my favorite player ever. A huge point-swing that gave the Lakers a double-digit lead again. The Lakers played spectacular defense on the next few possessions, forcing a couple of turnovers and the game was fittingly sealed off on a Luka Doncic close-range shot that was aided by an assist from LeBron. After an Anthony Edwards dunk that put the lead back to nine, the Minnesota players would not foul the Lakers on the next possession and yielded a shot-clock violation. The Wolves then subsequently dribbled the ball out and the game was over. The Lakers had won this important Game 2 of this Western Conference First Round series by a low-scoring final of 94-85. Only 13 points in the fourth quarter by the Purple & Gold, but the team did just enough to build an insurmountable lead with incredible defensive action. It was definitely a defensive-minded fan’s game and it was old-school gritty basketball. How fitting for my first playoff game ever attended for the Lakers, who got their first win of a hopefully long playoff run that will yield another championship trophy. One that has been arguably 15 years in the making, because the title won in 2020 did not feel as real due to the extreme circumstances that it was won under and the inability to have a victory parade.

“I Love L.A” was played over the loudspeakers as the streamers came down from the ceiling. It took a while for me and Dad to exit our seats, but we would and walked out of the arena through a stairwell, talking about how amazing it was to see a Lakers playoff win happen in such an incredible atmosphere. We would walk among a group of fans on Figueroa St who were pumped up by the win and one of them jokingly said that the Lakers had won in spite of “shooting 35% while holding the opponent to 25% shooting”. There were obviously some chants of anger and disdain towards the referees during the game and there was one fan in the section next to ours who was shouting out explicitly towards a referee with the number 46 due to all the foul calls being made against the Lakers. The entire arena erupted at one point into “Referee Sucks!” chants, something made famous by the fans of the other basketball team in the area that used to play under the roof of the downtown arena that most fans either refer to as “Crypto” or still as “Staples Center”. We returned to the Toyota Highlander that I have as my car and found our way out of the parking lot. It took us a while to get out of downtown, but definitely not as long as getting out of a parking garage in the only area worse than downtown L.A to have sporting venues. That area is in the city of Inglewood, where the Lakers used to play for thirty-plus years and traffic has only become magnified due to the presence of a world-class football stadium and a new basketball arena in the area formerly occupied by the Hollywood Park Horse Racing track and the Great Western Forum, the latter of which still stands today as a concert and entertainment venue. As we were driving out of downtown towards the I-5 freeway, I decided to roll down my window and greet some fellow Lakers fans waiting on a monorail train to take them to their next destination and I blurted out “Let’s Go Lakers!” The fans were very satisfied at that. We listened to the Lakers postgame show on 710 AM hosted by Beto Duran and heard phone call feeds from Lakers fans who were at the game along with us being happy about the result. We were all satisfied that the Purple & Gold would be going to their very-old stomping grounds not down 2-0 to the rough and tough Timberwolves, who have been around since the late 80s as the professional basketball team in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

For the game, both teams only used nine players in their rotations and the leading scoring was none other than Luka Doncic, who had 31 points along with 12 rebounds and 9 assists. A near triple-double occurred for Luka Magic in the first game that I ever saw him play live. Flanking Luka was obviously LeBron James, who had 21 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. Both of the biggest stars on the team with double-doubles along with a combined 16 assists. Austin Reaves was the third-highest scorer for the Lakers as he had 16 points to go with five rebounds and five assists. The only other Laker in double-figures in scoring was Rui Hachimura, who had 11 points and five rebounds. Jaxson Hayes did not have the best of games as he was tabbed with a load of fouls and only made one basket. The Lakers only had 13 bench points, all of them from Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent combined. The Lakers shot 45% from the field and only made six out of twenty-nine attempted 3-pointers. But they out-rebounded and out-assisted the Timberwolves, whose leading scorers were Julius Randle with 27 points and Anthony Edwards with a measly 25 points. Nobody else scored in double-figures for Minnesota, which will have to find a way to respond in Games 3 & 4 on their home floor at the Target Center.

No matter what happens in this tight series next, I will never forget this incredible experience that I was blessed to have. Thanks to my dad and the resale market, we were able to get tickets for this amazing game. Sure, they were expensive, but the Lakers are usually worth the price of admission. It was my first time seeing LeBron James in a playoff atmosphere, first time seeing Luka Doncic live in any atmosphere and the first time seeing the Lakers win in a playoff atmosphere. This was my 14th ever Lakers game and I had seen them win ten out of the first thirteen games I ever attended at STAPLES Center/Crypto.com Arena. This was the lowest-scoring game that I had attended since the final time I ever saw Kobe Bryant play live, which was a disappointing 90-87 loss to the New York Knicks in March of 2016. But I can wholeheartedly say that I am good luck for the Lakers and I was glad that they won both games that I attended for the 2024-25 season. Those two wins over the Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves will provide memories that I will never forget for the rest of my life. These two wins definitely make up for lost time not attending games due to the pandemic and my distaste for the Lakers that lasted a short time due to poor player personnel decisions and a lack of good results. But now I can proudly be a Lakers fan again and hopefully they will win Title No. 18 sooner rather than later. Very soon hopefully for all the purple and gold fans spread out through the Southern California region and the entire world.