The Lakers’ season had just ended after a 103-96 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series. During the game, the TNT cameras caught Pelinka shaking his head in frustration. A frustration that plagued the third-seeded Lakers in a series it lost to the sixth-seeded Timberwolves 4-1 and will linger into the offseason. Rudy Gobert, Minnesota’s 7-foot-1 center, crushed the Lakers with 27 points and 24 rebounds while exposing a problem Pelinka and his front office could never solve. Trading Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic stripped the Lakers’ of their only effective rim protector.

The Timberwolves, who had been one of the NBA's best 3-point shooting teams in the regular season, won despite one of the worst shooting performances in NBA history. The Wolves finished 7-of-47 (14.9%) from beyond the arc, the worst 3-point percentage in a playoff game in NBA history (minimum 40 attempts). Minnesota missed 18 straight 3s between the second and fourth quarters, tied for the second-most consecutive missed 3s in a playoff win since at least 1998. Edwards was 0-for-11 from 3-point range, tied for the most attempts without a make in a playoff game all time. Amid the putrid shooting performance, however, was center Rudy Gobert, who buoyed the Timberwolves with one of the best performances of his 12-year career.

The Minnesota Timberwolves spent Game 5 in a dismal shooting funk, providing the Los Angeles Lakers with ample opportunity to stave off playoff elimination. While his teammates struggled, Rudy Gobert stepped up against the small-ball Lakers — and on their big man’s shoulders, the Wolves are going all the way back to the second round. Gobert had playoff career highs with 27 points and 24 rebounds, Julius Randle added 23 points and Minnesota advanced in the NBA playoffs with a clinching 103-96 victory in their first-round series Wednesday night.