The Los Angeles Lakers had a chance to steal both Games 3 and 4 on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves but came up short both times.
In Game 3, things were tied with around three minutes to play, and the Timberwolves outscored the Lakers 13-1 to pull away late. Then in Game 4, L.A. led most of the way and was up two with around 90 seconds to play before Minnesota ended the game with five straight points.
Those thin margins can be the difference in a playoff series as the Lakers now head home for Game 5 facing a daunting 3-1 deficit.
When discussed what has gone wrong for the Lakers down the stretch of things games, LeBron James gave credit to the Timberwolves for executing better than they did, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“It was just big play after big play. They made a couple more plays than we did, obviously… They won the game, but it wasn’t like they completely pulled away. They won the game and just made a couple more opportunities. Obviously Ant got it going in the fourth. I thought Naz’s minutes in the fourth were huge. We were trying to hold them off and he had a big post-up and a left-hand jump hook. And he came back with a 3 every time we were trying to push the lead up. Obviously I think Jaden had a couple good plays as well down the stretch, obviously one of the most important ones was the and-one late in the game. We had opportunities to win, we just couldn’t close it.”
Poor late-game execution has become a theme for the Lakers in recent years as it cost them against the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs in both 2023 and 2024 as well. A team with James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves should never be struggling to find offense late in games, but that has been the case this series.
Meanwhile, the Timberwolves were one of the worst clutch time teams in the regular season but have completely flipped the script so far in this series. With the Lakers now on the brink of elimination, that will need to change.
LeBron James stresses need for Lakers to take things one game at a time
LeBron James has come back from 3-1 deficit before and he knows in order for the Lakers to win this series, they have to take things one game at a time.
“Obviously you don’t think about winning three. You think about just getting the next one. That’s the only thing that matters because if not, obviously the offseason begins. So it’s all about Wednesday. That’s what’s important.”
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