While fans focused on the second half, JJ Redick mentioned issues in the opening quarters that hurt the Lakers in Game 4.
The Lakers failed to win either of their two games in Minnesota against the Wolves over the weekend. Now they are heading home down 3-1 and one loss away from their season being over.
Each game is its own singular event, but one thing that’s been clear is that the Wolves have been the sharper team.
While it’s human nature to focus on the final quarter of a close game, especially when your coach makes zero substitutions in a half, during his postgame comments, head coach JJ Redick highlighted the Lakers’ errors in the first half as a factor in their Game 4 loss.
“I thought we played well enough in the first half with our first shot defense, we should have been up double figures,” Redick said. “Instead, we’re down. Some turnovers led to some baskets and then offensive rebounds just killed us in the first half.”
Basketball is a 48-minute game, and you have to review its totality to see why a result went a certain way. For the Lakers, not having control of the game on the road heading into halftime was a missed opportunity.
They led by as many as 10 points during the first half, but got only six offensive rebounds compared to Minnesota’s 12 and their seven turnovers led to seven Wolves points.
After a Julius Randle 3-pointer, Minnesota entered the half up by three.
Feeling the game and the season, for that matter, heading toward disaster, Redick only played Dorain-Finney-Smith, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Luka Dončić the rest of the way.
This decision proved costly, but perhaps the bigger culprit, other than Redick’s choice, was the poor execution in the first half that forced him into thinking that was the best option.
Offensive rebounds are not a place fans typically go when analyzing why a game went a certain way, but they are such a valuable commodity. An offensive rebound gives you a second chance, an opportunity to get another look at the basket and, typically, the more attempts you get, the better your odds are to score.
Now, with half of the game left, the Lakers still had chances. However, when assessing the result, it’s hard not to look at that first half and think what could have been had they played a little bit better.
For example, Los Angeles went on a 14-0 run to start the third. Had they been up from the start of the quarter, maybe the game would have turned into a blowout win instead of a narrow loss.
However, Game 4 is over and Game 5 is next. What matters now is that the Lakers are making the necessary adjustments to win at home and keep their season alive.
That means playing sharper from the start, jumping out to a lead and being in control by halftime.
If they do that, they will force a Game 6. If not, then it’s time for Cacun.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.