After dropping both games in Minnesota, the Los Angeles Lakers now find themselves on the brink of elimination against the Timberwolves. And while it may seem obvious, Austin Reaves and the rest of this team understands the importance of this game.
“It’s a must-win, as everybody knows,” Reaves said after Lakers practice on Tuesday. “Not an ideal situation but like I said after the game, we still have an opportunity to go out and compete tomorrow and go get a win.”
The Lakers had an opportunity to win both games on the road but just weren’t able to pull it out in the end. Now back at home and with a much higher level of desperation in an elimination game, Reaves echoed the thoughts of his teammates in that they must treat Game 5 like a Game 7.
“We’ve gotta go compete. Play as hard as we possibly can and treat it like a Game 7. That’s basically what it is for us.”
In a win-or-go-home situation, that is exactly the type of energy the Lakers need. The team also needs to do a better job in the fourth quarter as that has cost them in this series so far. But Reaves took it a step further and noted the Lakers’ issues in closing out quarters period, not just the fourth.
“I feel like not just the fourth quarter, the end of quarters we haven’t finished quarters the way we needed to,” Reaves said. “I feel like the end of the first quarter last game, we could’ve been up 10-12. I think they hit a couple shots to cut it to five or six and then the second quarter they took the lead.
“So there’s many things in the game that we could do better to give ourselves a better opportunity to win and then the fourth quarter, it comes down to just executing. Like I said many times, you win and lose on the margins and in the fourth quarter, we just haven’t done a good enough job to get those wins when we need it.”
Closing out quarters has been an issue for the Lakers all season long as they have often allowed teams to cut double-digit leads down to four or less and given the opposition a ton of momentum and confidence. That is especially important in the postseason where every possession matters so much, and Reaves feels the Lakers must treat every single possession with that mentality.
“I don’t know, almost every possession has got to feel like that. You gotta treat every possession as an individual thing that you gotta go attack,” Reaves noted. “The more the game goes on, obviously when you get into the fourth quarter and it’s a close game, those plays matter more than the ones did the first two minutes of the game. But if you go in with the mentality like that of every single play matters and you execute to the best of your ability, you’re never gonna be perfect, you’ll give yourself opportunities to win.”
The Lakers must have the right mindset and belief in themselves going into this must-win game. If they don’t come out with that level of fight and intensity, and close out quarters better than they have, the Timberwolves will send them home for the summer.
Austin Reaves: Lakers still have opportunity to fight down 3-1
One thing that is for sure is that Austin Reaves himself will be ready to fight for the Lakers playoff life in Game 5. After Game 4, the guard made it clear that as long as the Lakers have the chance to get on the court, they are not out of this series.
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