Lakers limp into the offseason directionless and drained. Has LeBron J

LOS ANGELES — The Lakers were beaten — and battered, limping all the way to the finish line.

It was abundantly clear early on it would take a monstrous effort to stave off elimination from the Minnesota Timberwolves and send this series back to Minneapolis. And for stretches of Wednesday’s game it appeared both teams took turns telling the other “put me out of my misery, please!”

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The Timberwolves, with one of the most anemic shooting nights in the history of the NBA playoffs, still stayed in control for the entire night—never once giving off the feeling the Lakers would be accompanying them back to Minnesota for a Game 6.

The Lakers gave all they had last weekend and came up empty, and all that was left was last rites, delivered in a 103-96 Game 5 final at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday night.

First Luka Dončić went down, his back acting up as he sauntered to the locker room at the end of the first half. Then later, LeBron James collided with Donte DiVincenzo, falling in a heap on his left leg in the fourth quarter. He never went to the locker room but he wasn’t right after, dragging that leg as if it were no longer attached to his body.

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If this were some hokey Hollywood script, we would all say it was set up for James and Dončić to make the miraculous happen, to take the game since the Timberwolves were intent on beating themselves in stretches — but they couldn’t.

Anthony Edwards missed all 11 of his 3-pointers, and it didn’t stop him from hoisting them. The Timberwolves missed a record 40 triples, yet seemed to win easily because Rudy Gobert turned into Wilt Chamberlain (27 points, 24 rebounds) and Julius Randle cosplayed the best of Charles Barkley (23 points, five rebounds, four assists).

James’ remaining shots came up short, because he couldn’t get the lift. And Dončić didn’t have the stamina to sustain any type of consistent performance as the night dragged on.

“I didn’t play the way I should,”…