Before the playoffs the talk was about how the Lakers had an easy path and would roll through MN. I heard multiple national media talking about what the Lakers would do in the 2nd round like it was a foregone conclusion. Then the Wolves make easy work of them and apparently theyre the sorriest team in the league and the Wolves haven’t played a real team yet.
An overwhelming amount of that has to do with the Casual narrative that runs parallel to the Lakers; they're the most popular team, so their good angle is typically going to be captured, regardless if it matches with how they look in reality. Minnesota were never going to be easy for them given their biggest strength was LA's biggest weakness. I remember telling Lakers fans this very thing and because they were gassed off their team they didn't take it seriously enough.
This compounded by their bench and their starting center becoming unplayable and they were in deep waters quick.
Minny were playing downhill all series, not facing any resistance because the Lakers were reliant on Bron to anchor them on defense.
And I also heard people swearing GS could best MN without Steph or at least get it to 6 or 7 to get him back because of how amazing their defense was. Wolves made quick work of them too and again the narrative is that they haven’t played a real team.
I refuse to believe anyone was seriously saying this.
GS without Steph are a lottery team, and not only that, but because they struggled generate any offense, whatsoever, without him during that series, it made it much easier on the T'Wolves because they could make mistake after mistake and GS simply weren't good enough to take advantage at the other end. Their defense is predicated on the momentum they create on offense, because it covers up for the fact that they don't have a legit frontcourt.