EL SEGUNDO — As the Lakers walked off the Minnesota Timberwolves’ home court after blowing a fourth-quarter double-digit lead in their Game 4 defeat, the reality of what they would need to accomplish to keep their season alive beyond this week set in.
The Lakers are hoping to become the 14th team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit in in a best-of-seven playoff series.
Game 5 of Lakers-Timberwolves is set for Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“[I’ve] seen LeBron [James] do it already,” forward Dorian Finney-Smith responded when asked what characteristics he’s seen from the Lakers that provides confidence they can overcome the deficit.
Finney-Smith added: “But nah, we still feel like we can win this series. We just gotta win one game at a time. Obviously, put ourselves in harm’s way. But we gotta figure it out as a team.”
Finney-Smith was referencing when James famously led the Cleveland Cavaliers to overcome a 3-1 series deficit in the 2016 NBA Finals over the Golden State Warriors, which is the only time a 3-1 deficit has been overcome in the league’s championship series.
“Obviously, you don’t think about winning three,” James said. “You think about just getting the next one. That’s the only thing that matters because if not, obviously, the offseason [begins]. It’s all about Wednesday. That’s what’s important.”
But the odds are heavily against the Lakers from replicating the feat.
Of the 288 playoff series that at some point had a status of 3-1, only 35 times was a Game 7 forced, or 12.15% of the time.
And of those 35 instances, only 13 times did the team trailing 3-1 successfully come back to win the series.
The last team to successfully come back from down 3-1 in a series was the Denver Nuggets in the first and second rounds of the 2020 playoffs (both in the pandemic bubble in Orlando).
The 2023 Boston Celtics were the last team to force a Game 7 after trailing 3-1 in a series (they trailed 3-0) before they were eventually beaten by the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.
“It’s must-win, as everybody knows,” guard Austin Reaves said after Tuesday’s practice. “Not in an ideal situation, but we still have an opportunity to go out and compete and go get a win.”
First-year Lakers coach JJ Redick on Tuesday described the team as “on edge, as we should be,” adding that the team will need to play with a sense of desperation to avoid their season ending on Wednesday.
“We have to win Game 5,” Redick said. “It’s been conveyed by coaches, players, [Wednesday] is a [Game 7] for us.”
Luka Doncic echoed Redick.
“Confidence is a big part of it,” he said. “We got to treat it like it’s Game 7, and we got to stick together.”
The Lakers can have confidence going into Wednesday knowing that they’ve been competitive despite the series deficit.
But they need to be better late in games, especially in the most precarious moments, to keep the series alive.
The Lakers have beaten Minnesota 337-329 combined in the first three quarters of the series.
But the Timberwolves have beaten the Lakers by a combined score of 105-69 in the fourth, winning the fourth quarter in each game. The Timberwolves have outscored the Lakers 25-11 in the “clutch,” when the score differential is five points or less in the final five minutes of the fourth.
“There’s been a lot of times where we’ve gotten some good looks, and I think in Game 4 in particular, when we didn’t turn the ball over, we had some good looks,” Redick said. “I think three of the first four possessions [of the fourth in Game 4], were what I would call wasted possessions.
“The series requires us to play a certain way. When we’ve played that way, we’ve got good results and the process has been good. And if we haven’t it, it hasn’t looked that good.”
The Lakers have scored 20 or fewer points in each fourth quarter.
“Got to make more shots, that’s it,” Doncic said. “We had some good shots. We didn’t make it. Obviously, me, Bron, AR, we got to walk the game down at this point. I got to do a better job of closing the game out.”
DONCIC’S DONATION TO RESTORE KOBA, GIGI MURAL
Doncic stepped up by paying the entire expected cost of restoring a vandalized mural depicting deceased Lakers icon Kobe Bryant, and his daughter Gigi, in downtown Los Angeles.
The 26-year-old Slovenian star made a $5,000 donation on Tuesday to cover the entire goal of a GoFundMe page created by artist Louie Palsino, who is looking to restore the mural, titled “Mambas Forever,” at 14th and Main streets.
“It was always important to give back to the community that gave me so much,” Doncic said after Tuesday’s practice. “So I just wanted to give back.”
Kobe and Gigi died in a tragic helicopter crash along with seven others on Jan. 26, 2020, in Calabasas.
TIMBERWOLVES AT LAKERS
What: Western Conference playoffs, first round, Game 5
When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV/radio: Spectrum SportsNet, TNT, truTV, Max/710 AM