It was a concern before the season and here we are…

Truth be told, we came close to losing Game 2 in the 4th but the difference was that MIN missed the wide open looks they’ve been hitting in the other 3 games. It’s a problem..

FROM THE ABOVE ARTICLE:

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.”

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Zach Lowe thinks Luka Doncic needs to fight more defensively

“He’s just helpless defensively, off the ball too,” Lowe stated bluntly on his podcast about Luka Doncic.

“How about you put up a fight in like game one. And now you’re down 3-1 and you’re probably going home.”

The criticism highlights a weakness that has followed Doncic throughout his career but has been particularly exposed in this playoff series against the athletic Timberwolves.

Despite the Lakers’ defensive needs against Minnesota’s explosive offense, Doncic has struggled to provide resistance on that end.

Where’s the Luka magic as a playmaker

While Doncic poured in 38 points in Game 4, Lowe pointed to another concerning statistic that suggests the superstar isn’t having his typical impact as a playmaker.

“One interesting stat from this series is that Luka only has 20 assists in four games, which for him is not very many,” Lowe explained.

lol. Zach Lowe should look at some of the advanced stats a little more closely before popping off.

No other Laker has contested more shots than Luka (makes sense, they’re making him work on defense).

The Timberwolves are shooting the lowest FG% against Luka.

Those are the numbers, don’t much matter what the opinion’s around them are.

Don’t believe me? Want to keep the charade going? Cool but some stats don’t lie. 80 fouls called on the Lakers, 81 on the Timbereolves. Both teams have attempted exactly 69 free throws. The Lakers have taken 157 three pointers to the T’Wolves 139. The real difference is in the makes, despite shooting 18 fewer threes Minny has only made 4 fewer (53-57). They’ve committed way fewer turnovers, rebounded a lot better and are generally playing harder and with a focused force.

THATS the difference.

We were cheated and what is replay for. None of this NBA correcting lousy calls after the affect!

Me too, it makes people think it wasn’t the 10 minutes of listless, weak basketball BEFORE the trip that was the reason why we lost…

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

LAKERS CAN STILL SAVE LEGACY SEASON!

Despite overzealous zebras taking over the playoffs, I still believe the basketball gods have not yet given up on JJ Redick, LeBron James, Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Despite the Lakers being down 1-3, there is still a very possible path for the Lakers to come back and win this series in 7 games because 2 of the remaining 3 games will be in Los Angeles.

The comeback has to start with a huge win on Wednesday night to keep the Lakers championship hopes alive. Follow that with an upset in Game 6 in Minnesota on Friday night and suddenly the Lakers regain home court advantage and play Game 7 in L.A. on Sunday afternoon.

Despite the turmoil and disappointment, there’s still something still magical about this Lakers’ season. JJ’s first year as coach. Luka’s first year as our new face of the franchise. And LeBron still playing like a top-5 player at the age of 40 in his 22nd season.

That’s why I still love this team and believe they still have a chance until we lose that 4th game. Credit to the Minnesota Timberwolves and their great young star Anthony Edwards and crew. The winner of this series has a great chance to win the NBA championship.

LAKERS IN 7!

This whole “the refs are STEALING it from us” line is utter BS. The more polished, aggressive and talented team is beating up on the weaker, more desperate and disconnected team. That’s it, that’s the story. Anything else is whining and piss poor excuses.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Like any great comedy show, the best jokes were saved for last.

The Los Angeles Lakers, who combined to orchestrate one of the most derided and catastrophically absurd campaigns that anyone can remember, are finally done.

They’re done because the mathematical computations say so, following a defeat to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday that left them three games back of the Western Conference’s 10th spot with three games remaining, and a tiebreaker working against them.

But they’re really done because there is nothing else left. The show is over. The comedic pot has been emptied. For months, there has been so much for any non-purple-and-gold fan to laugh at, and now there’s simply no further scope for fresh material.

Who’s to blame for Lakers season woes? I UNDISPUTED
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It was almost too much. Every day brought some fresh embarrassment for the rest of the league to chuckle over. Every other comment was quickly ushered into the category of “well, that didn’t age well,” often before it had had a chance to age at all.

The final nail, confirmation that a team boasting LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook would not get a sniff of the postseason, brought out the last bits of humor, and there were doozies among them.

If Los Angeles had shown a fraction of the creativity that the internet chuckle monsters employed by the time Wednesday morning rolled around, they’d be cruising into the playoffs instead of peering half-heartedly in from the window.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

After swapping out Dorian Finney-Smith for Jaxson Hayes in the starting lineup, the lineup of LeBron James, Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and DFS played the rest of the way.

It’s a move that literally hasn’t been done before as Redick made history. But with the Lakers facing a must-win situation, an extra day of rest between Games 4 and 5 and a bench still lacking in production in the first half, Redick rolled the dice in a big way.

“No, it wasn’t planned,” Redick said postgame. “We just made the decision at halftime.”

The Lakers had their best quarter of the series in the third period with the lineup and led seven with five minutes remaining. But whether it was a mixture of his team running out of gas or the Wolves executing at a high level, the Lakers faltered down the stretch again, losing by three to fall behind 3-1 in the series.

“It’s not a planned thing to play five guys an entire second half,” Redick reiterated. “We asked them at the beginning of the fourth quarter, we told them we had two extra two timeouts, if you need a sub, let us know. Those guys gave a lot.”

Asked if he was second-guessing the decision in hindsight, Redick pushed back and said he wasn’t.

Darvin Ham would be getting absolutely crucified if he made some of these mistakes Redick has been making in this series.

Sounds like he’s starting to crack and get desperate while we move further and further away from what got us here… Grab the reigns man.

FROM THE ABOVE ARTICLE:

Austin Reaves went scoreless in the first half, but stepped up with 17 points to finish the game.

He also had the chance to tie the game on the final possession, but missed the shot, which meant the Lakers would lose out Game 4.

This was another indication of how poor Reaves has been in the playoffs as his contributions have showed up in the stat sheet, but he has just failed to make any impact on the team as a whole.