Dorian Finney-Smith says Game 2 is a ‘must-win game’ for Lakers

After dropping Game 1, the Lakers are heading into Game 2 with a must-win mentality.

The Lakers backed themselves into a corner with their Game 1 loss to the Wolves on Saturday. While it is far from the end of the series, it shortens the margin of error for the purple and gold as well as handing home court advantage back to Minnesota.

The Lakers will have to win a game on the road in the series now to come away victorious, but before they even get to that point, they need to respond in Game 2 on Tuesday. And while it feels obvious, that game becomes a sort of must-win for the Lakers, as Dorian Finney-Smith noted after practice on Monday.

“Every game different,” Finney-Smith said. “Just got to come out there and be the better team. They was the better team first game. It’s a whole new game. We just got to try to come out here and get this win. It’s a must-win. Especially if we’re trying to do something special, we have to get this win.”

The 2020 title-winning team showed that dropping Game 1 in a series was certainly not a death knell. But that team also didn’t have to deal with any sort of home or away games either.

This team will have a more challenging path that starts on Tuesday. And heading into the contest, they’re saying all the right things.

Pretty immediately, the team acknowledged they did not play with enough physicality in Game 1. On Monday, head coach JJ Redick said the team had one of their best practices in months while Reaves referred to the loss a wake up call.

All the right messages are coming out from the team. Now, they have to back up the talk with action in Game 2.

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