Coach J.J. Redick made two bold strategic moves that nearly led the Lakers to a Game 4 victory in Minnesota, writes Jovan Buha of The Athletic. Redick decided to replace center Jaxson Hayes with Dorian Finney-Smith for the start of the third quarter, and he used the same five players for the entire second half. Buha notes that Gabe Vincent nearly checked in at one point, but Redick changed his mind and stayed with the same unit for the full 24 minutes.
“I think once you’ve kind of made that decision, and (the players) all are in, you just gotta trust them,” Redick said.
The move seemed inevitable with Hayes, who has been limited to seven points and eight rebounds in the series and didn’t reach double digits in minutes in any of the first four games. Finney-Smith enables L.A. to spread the floor on offense and switch more easily on defense.
The group started the second half on an 11-0 run and won the third quarter by a 36-23 margin, giving the Lakers their highest-scoring quarter of the series. They led by seven points with 5:06 remaining and seemed to be in a good position to tie the series, but couldn’t close out the game. A series of late mistakes proved costly, but players refused to blame the loss on their iron man performance in the second half.
“I don’t think fatigue had anything to do with that,” LeBron James said. “Just missing some point-blank shots, you know? We were getting into what we wanted to get into. We just weren’t able to convert.”
There’s more on the Lakers:
- Sunday’s game displayed how little trust Redick has in his bench, Buha adds. Along with Hayes, his other rotation members, Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt and Jordan Goodwin, tend to be one-way players. Buha believes Redick might use a center-less approach for the rest of the series, even though the Wolves have a lot of size on their front line.
- After battling through a stomach virus in Game 3, Luka Doncic seemed to be back to normal on Sunday, according to Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. Doncic finished with 38 points while logging a series-high 46 minutes. “This is the playoffs – fatigue shouldn’t play any role in this,” Doncic said. “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 also played 46 minutes and appears to be fully recovered from a left hip flexor strain he suffered two weeks ago, Buha states in a separate story. “He’s moving better,” Redick said after Game 3. “He seems like he’s getting healthier by the day. It’s typically a one-to-two-week injury. Believe it’s been two weeks tonight, if I’m mistaken, from the Houston game. Clearly he’s moving better.”
Lakers bamboozled the basketball world with luka trade
And now 1st rd humiliating exit lol
Bye bye lebron
Bye bye la
can’t win with just 5 players.
JJ playing LeBron 44 minutes and Luka is why they lost. Both were dead tired at the end of the game. If you don’t trust your bench then you failed as a coach.
La mediocridad de los Lakers se nota a estas alturas, ni a quien culpar
LeBron can’t get out of the first round with Davis or Luka.
GOAT lmao.
A true GOAT would never go 4-6 in Finals, if he was as good as they said he was, he would go 10-0 or 9-1.
I don’t even like LeBron but he’s 40 years old you chode.
He’s definitely the 40 year old GOAT. Not even close.
Where do these people come from?
So he can put up triple doubles at 40 but can’t win?
I mean, Luka can put up triple doubles at 26 and he can’t win.
You’re making fun of the 40 year old and giving the 26 year old a pass? How come bro?
You just hatin?
No one calls Luka the GOAT. So there is nothing to argue there.
If LeBron is still capable of averaging 24/8/8 then he should be capable of getting out of the first round.
They come (and stay) from their parents house
Lebron has had the greatest career in league history. Michael Jordan is the GOAT.
Hey, buddy, let me tell you a fact: 4-6 in finals means you did not, have “the greatest career in league history”. He had A “career in league history” and a good one. But 6-1 is better than 4-6 no matter how you wanna slice it. 4-2 is better than 4-6 too.
He is the all time leader in a zillion different categories with championships and mvps to spare. His career in total is beyond compare. Again, not the greatest player, but the most accomplished career by a thousand miles. And… we are definitely not buddies.
Look, guy, I can call you “buddy” and it doesn’t necessarily mean we are pals, friend.
Don’t let this joker bug you graymond, Davey is the resident fool in this community. Never makes sense, talks out of both sides of his mouth. Every little thing is either the best or worst thing ever in the history of history. He’s a clown, just ignore him.
Cool cool, something definitely seems a little bit off there. Thanks for the heads up.
Imagine if Thibs played his starters the whole second half. JJ couldn’t lose this game. He went for it. His failure is not securing a Center for playoffs. Moses was out there. Small ball is a myth.
No real knowledgeable fan believes in small ball. Its a tool. Its a system you can use or not use. Its not the end all. You can’t teach size. Amazing to me teams still don’t get this.
Hero Ball strikes again ….. I know AD they might have won this. Not a chip. But at least go 7 ……
OneWay Wonder got a one way trip home first rd Exit.
Small ball has not worked for the last 5 years. Teams have gone after centers in the last few drafts and the game has changed back. Small ball only works against slow teams but in the playoffs you need a big center. Big mistake on lakers is voiding the trade for a center. Made no sense because they didn’t give up that much for a center.
Small ball has been around since Celtics first chip bro After Warriors won using it. Everyone went nuts with it. Its a system another offense in the playbook. Even Kerr is finally figuring that out again. All I’m saying is. Today you have to go big or small. 15 players on a roster. JJ is not a servant. Playing ball is just matchups. You need depth and size. Lakers are proving that. No one or three players wins a chip. It takes a franchise to do it. JJ has no bigs. No bigs, thats not all on him.
You are kinda right. Small Ball did start with the Celtics. But, it took the 25 years of playing small ball for the Warriors to win a championship.
Also, why do people keep insisting that Kerr doesn’t want to play a big man? He definitely wants the next Jokic or Zubac.
They have drafted 3 players 6’11″+ in Kerr’s time.
Suns . RunTMC, Bullits with Unseld. Knicks beat Lakers with small ball when Reed went down. Nobody remembers that. All about him limping on in gm 7. Well if Knicks don’t win gm6 there is no gm 7. Knicks had all their forwards take turns on Wilt. And shot lights out. Warriors just made it fashionable again. Cause they had great shooters. Thats the key to small ball.
Run-TMC didn’t last very long. But, “Nellie Ball”, or small ball stayed until he was forced out. But, it started in his days with the Bucks after they lost Kareem. His inspiration for it came from his playing does with the Celtics. Oh, the Warriors had a bunch of 7-footers during Nelson’s tenure. They just were never dominant. Biendris could of been good, but he regressed with a big contract.
“Small ball has not worked for the last 5 years.”
Who was the Celtics center last year when they won the championship? Tatum led the team with 8.1 rpg. Porzingas barely played in the playoffs. Horford attempted five 3 pointers a game. They played small and three ball and won it all.
I would suggest that it can only work if you have an all time great like Steph in his prime.
During the regular season, Redick needs to integrate the bench players effectively into the team’s overall strategy
Basically Redick is saying that Lakers don’t have depth.
Correct he refused to use his bench when he should have experimented with them to find out if they can play.
Sound like Thibs ….
Thibs should thank Brunson everyday because without Brunson the knicks lose He is as valuable as what Curry is to the warriors.
So isn’t worst move ever Brunson and not Luka lol. I mean …… we got him for nottttttinn
That was crazy reckless. Reddick cost them their season. He could have staggered the substitutions. Had 2 of the 3 of them on the floor at all times. But for gods sake, LeBron had nothing left in the end. Luka was front rimming it. They were spent. Terrible game management.
“Nearly led to a W”
“Nearly”
That’s never going to be enough.
46 mins and 15-18 from FT with only 27 total points = Lebron, 2025.
Now everyone go look up Kareem’s age 40 and 41 seasons and what he did in the playoffs.
Lebron does not clear Kareem.
Enough people pointed out the obvious at the time – the Lakers, post-Luka deal, have no frontcourt. It was always going to be a problem, but some people got all starry-eyed over Luka and refused to see it. Even with AD, they needed an extra big – sending him away was the nail in the coffin.
Told you so.
Terrible decision not to play at least 7 players. Just makes your bench worse for the next series of games. MN by contrast trusts a full 8 players. And what if a starter gets injured?
What you get from a no-experience coach.
Jerry stats in 14 yrs playing
Total points — 25,192
Avg per yr — 27.0 pts
FG made — 9,016
FG attempts — 19,032
FG% —- .474%
3pt made — zero
3pt attempts — zero
3pt % —- zero
FT made — 7,160
FT attempts — 8,801
FT% —- .814%
Steph Curry in 16 yrs playing .
Total points — 25,386
Avg per yr — 24.7 pts
FG made — 8,648
FG attempts— 18,356
FG% —- .471%
3pt made — 4,058
3pt attempt — 9,589
3pt % —- .423%
FT made — 4,032
FT attempts — 4,424
FG% —- .911%
Lets get down to some REAL Facts —
West had 4377 more FT attempts.
West had 3128 more FTs made.
Most of you probably won’t believe it. But West was just ss good a shooter as Curry. Where Curry has the release no one has. Jerry invented the fade away J. MJ Kobe Ray all took it from him ….. ok
After 16 yrs Curry does have more points than West. Curry needed 16 yrs. And if West had the 3pt shot. He would at least have made as much as Clay. And that puts him at 27,892 total pts in 14 yrs. So please stop with the greatest anything. Till you read about who taught them all. His name is
Jerry West the LOGO . And he never made a three point shot. He earned it at the FT line. And made more FTs than Bron (22yrs)8649. West (14yrs) 7160……. Recognize .
West with a 3pt — 27,892 (14 yrs). And Klay stat is from 12 yrs. Add two more years ….. Fuhgedaboudit
Curry total — 25,386 (16yrs)
HowULikeMeNow …….
Well, tough to compare, but as one who played before the 3pt shot existed, we can always dream of playing now. Both Jerry West and Steph Curry had/have enormous impact on their teams and were/are fun to watch.
Just to add, they could map where players shot from. For example, Pistol Pete Maravich is reported to have averaged 12 shots per game from what would have been behind the 3pt line (ESPN 2014)