JJ Redick pressed the panic button and still lost

LeBron James could not achieve a point in the fourth quarter of the fourth game of the first conference series between his Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves. The wolves deleted a 12-point deficit in the third quarter and won the game with a single bucket. With the victory that they achieved into a lead of 3: 1 over the higher Lakers, which are now a loss of elimination. Even worse, when James’ failure to score in Los Angeles, he was even able to get chances: the leading goal scorer of the NBA fresh from a regular season, in which he only scored an average of 24.4 points per game in the fourth quarter of the most important game of his team season. In technical terms, this is simply not correct.

As much as I will say, the angry self-abuse of the Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont can disturb, the ultra-stagnante all-Luka offensive of the Lakers can be held responsible for so much of Early Sunday viewers. The Lakers and especially LeBron seemed to be physically exhausted. Head coach Jj Redick had switched on his line-up to start the second half, which Dorian Finney-Smith had inserted for Center Jaxson Hayes. This makes the defense of Los Angeles faster and more switch; It also spares the floor better for Doncic, forced the Timberwolves Center Rudy Gobert to protect itself from the scope, and gives Los Angeles the versatility and distributed soil knowledge to defend the defense of Minnesota more effectively. This also requires a redistribution of dirty work interiors, which tends to require a lot of LeBron, such as the loud physical copy of Los Angeles; Without a center on the floor, the lakers simply cannot survive without lifron and crashes and emissions like a full-time man so as not to mention the usual, relentless help and resumption, defined the playoff basketball. This worked first: Los Angeles flew to a two-digit lead, then successfully hit a few mini runs and had a healthy lead most of the second half.

It may have worked too well. Redick either lost confidence in his bank or bought the heroic Stoicism of his five on the ground a little too easy: the Lakers made no substitute from the half. Yes, sure, it is normal for NBA head trainers to put their rotations for the playoffs. Yes, okay, the shooter tends to become more serious, the worse the circumstances gets. However, it is worth noting that the Lakers have become the first team since at least 1998 that only five players use for a whole half of a playoff game according to the Elias Sports Bureau. There is only their best and most reliable players, and then a small five-out position structure in a street in a row in a row is played in the playoff intensity in a street arena. In a special category on a completely different side, the man who runs all players in the history of the North American professional basketball in the entire career minute in the 74th game of his season at the age of 40. Lebron James is an extraordinary player and athlete, but nobody would have been to Surprised when one or both legs fell cleanly during the crunch-time.

I am just a modest blogger, but the exhaustion that the Lakers in game 4 sandbagged was exploited and exploited by the man who pulled the timber wolves to victory. “I had the feeling that they were gassed when they went down the route,” said Anthony Edwards, after pumping 43 points in the fourth quarter of 16 of his game height. “So just try to keep my foot in the pedal and continue.”

Redick said after the game that this second half of the NO-SUBs was unplanned. Things worked just and he had confidence in his boys. “I asked her at the beginning of the fourth quarter and told them we had two additional breaks,” said Redick from his process. “‘If you need a sub, let us know.’ These boys gave a lot. Exactly if your team goes on a crisis you do not Add Jaxson Hayes to your line -up. To ask a cold and stiff Hayes that only played four minutes of the first half to spell the world’s biggest basketball player and prevent an angry Timberwolves run during a playoff game would not differ much from grasping the phone during a four-alarm brand and choosing the pizza type. Of course, this is the reason why you use Hayes before Shit begins to hit the fan.

I don’t want to imply that Redick has committed coaching deficiency, just that he has pressed a damn good button that can actually be crossed into self-destruction mechanism. Sunday it worked almost as well as in the sense that the Timberwolves a really heroic Edwards performance, a controversial and somewhat crazy late recession and a missed but open Austin Reaves Eck-Drei pointer to gain in the regulation. However, Redick’s gambling came with the approval of a no less authority for LeBron James’ durability than James himself. “We have a few really good ones,” said James after the loss. “We had a few ways. I don’t think fatigue had something to do with it. You know just a few points shots, do you know?

This is terribly gentle in the quality of the Lakers game. The all-luka criminal offense, static and often hateful to observe, even if they produced points with historical efficiency-really that far. A tired Doncic seemed to lose his ability to defeat Minnesota’s energetic point of attack, even after the slow and lengthy teamwork that is necessary to develop advantageous matchups. Doncics supporting players, also dead on his feet, lost the small speed and mobility that was necessary to quickly push into the areas that were open through a flashing defense, and then to punish the 4-against-3 provisions, which were exposed by well-coordinated passes behind a high trap. The mood of the team began too acidic: a red and panting Doncic Rui Hachimura, which was late on the floor, when Doncic needed an approval valve, and an apoplectic redick later left an alarming laker outside the screen to feel Hachimura. And all the time, while the Lakers slowed down and the timber wolves did not and the edge closed, Los Angeles never put the ball in LeBron’s hands. The times when it fell there – via defensive rebound or swing pass or outlet – corresponded more random and random, and James seemed to be pressed in most cases in order to swing it on or by or in advance.

The Lakers clearly needed a second playmaker to create some criminal offense, spin against defenders and make some hard shots. They had the greatest player of all I can not convince that this was at least partially due to tiredness. James only played 60 games in his first five campaigns in Los Angeles, but was over 70 in this and again in this season. Last season he played 2,400 minutes since his season at the age of 33 and was over this brand again in his season at the age of 40. It is appropriate to consider him a superhuman athlete, but someone who is responsible must remember that he remains a finite resource. It was difficult not to interpret Redick’s refusal to give him some rest as a win or thesis maneuver. The Lakers are now marginalized: if they calculated that they needed in game 4 all of LeBron, shit, man. There is still one more to go.

There is a timeline in the multiverse, in which Edwards made less of his bold pull-ups or in which Chris Finch had no repetition in the pocket in the final minutes of the game, or in the Reaves’ Good End-Look, and the Lakers went after the game 4 and won today in the series with the action that went back by the plot of Los Angeles. Nevertheless, I would even advise the bizarre redick of this bizarre dimension not to make a sub-mode a second time. Desperate times are known to demand desperate measures, but from the two panic buttons, at least the unthinkable Jaxson Hayes One has the advantage of maintaining the team’s best players to fight another day.