MINNEAPOLIS — Lakers head coach JJ Redick made a bold decision by playing the same lineup for the entire second half of Sunday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series.
It’s a decision he said he didn’t regret despite his team being outscored 32-19 in the fourth quarter, resulting in a 116-113 loss that leaves them staring at a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-seven series.
NBA statistician and researcher Keerthika Uthayakumar reported that it marked the first time in the play-by-play era (1996-97) that five players played an entire half for any team in a playoff game.
“Not on that one,” Redick responded when asked if he was second-guessing the decision. “Once you’ve kind of made that decision, and they all are in, you just gotta trust them.”
Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Dorian Finney-Smith, LeBron James and Rui Hachimura played all 24 second-half minutes for the Lakers on Sunday afternoon.
Finney-Smith started the third quarter in place of starting center Jaxson Hayes, who played just four minutes on Sunday in light of his struggles throughout the series.
Redick said the decision to play that quintet was made during halftime, with the Lakers trailing 61-58 after allowing the Timberwolves to close the second quarter on a 12-3 run in the final 2:15.
“Not a planned thing to play five guys an entire second half. Asked them at the beginning of the fourth quarter and told them we had two extra timeouts. If you need a sub, let us know. Those guys gave a lot.”
The move initially paid off, with the Lakers having their best offensive quarter of the series, beating the Timberwolves 36-23 in the third to take a 94-84 lead going into the fourth after taking advantage of Minnesota’s more aggressive defensive game plan.
But the Lakers were outscored 32-19 in the fourth.
Already facing the quickest turnaround of the series following Friday night’s Game 3 loss, James (46), Doncic (46), Hachimura (41) and Finney-Smith (41) all played at least 41 minutes Sunday, while Reaves played 35 after sitting for a significant chunk of the first half because of foul trouble.
The Lakers shot 5 for 18 from the field – 4 for 12 from 3-point range and 1 for 6 on 2-point attempts – in the final quarter.
“This is the playoffs – fatigue shouldn’t play any role in this,” said Doncic, who played through a stomach illness in Game 3. “I played a lot of minutes, but that shouldn’t play a role. I think they just executed better on the offensive end during the last minutes.
James agreed with Doncic.
“We got some really good looks,” James said. “Luka missed a point-blank layup to put us up seven. I missed a point-blank layup to put us up four. We had a couple opportunities. I don’t think fatigue had anything to do with that. Just missing some point-blank shots. We were getting into what we wanted to get into. We just weren’t able to convert.”
END OF QUARTERS
How the Lakers closed the end of the first and second quarters came back to haunt them.
The Lakers could have taken a 12-point lead with 50 seconds left in the first if Doncic made a layup, but he missed, leading to an Anthony Edwards layup on the other end that kickstarted a 6-0 Timberwolves run to close the first, cutting the Lakers’ lead to four (32-28).
The Timberwolves also outscored the Lakers 12-3 in the final 2:15 of the second, turning a 55-49 Lakers lead into a 61-58 Minnesota lead going into halftime.
“It was very crucial,” James said. “In the postseason game, closing quarters is very crucial and I would say [the] first, second and fourth [quarters] we didn’t do that. Did a good job in the third quarter, but the first and the second quarter. In the fourth quarter, obviously we weren’t able to close quarters. That was definitely challenging for us.”
With the score tied, the Lakers were outscored 13-1 over the final 4:37 of their Game 3 loss.
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