Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick played five players for the entire second half of Game 4 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, and Dorian Finney-Smith played all 24 second half minutes. It is the first time an NBA coach has done that in the play-by-play era (1996-97).
JJ Redick just became the first coach in the play-by-play era to play five players for an entire half in the playoffs.
James, Doncic, Reaves, Hachimura & Finney-Smith played the entire second half today.
— Keerthika Uthayakumar (@keerthikau) April 27, 2025
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Redick was seemingly doing what he felt he needed to in order to avoid a 3-1 series deficit.
The move did not pay off as Minnesota outscored the Lakers 32-19 in the fourth quarter to sneak away with a 116-113 victory.
Fatigue must have played some sort of factor as 40-year-old James went scoreless in the fourth after racking up 27 points through three quarters. Doncic shot 1-for-6 in the fourth and Reaves was 2-for-7. The Lakers “Big Three” was a combined 3-for-15 while Hachimura and Finney-Smith combined to shoot 1-for-3.
Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Jordan Goodwin combined to play 27 scoreless minutes off the bench.
Minnesota shot 10-for-22 from the field in the fourth including 5-for-11 from deep.
Lakers Felt Good, Wolves Felt More Energy
When the players spoke after the game, there were different takes from both sides. James refused to use fatigue as an excuse, highlighting the good looks the team had and just didn’t knock down.
“We got some really good looks,” James said. “Luka [Doncic] missed a point-blank layup to put us up seven. I missed a point-blank layup to put us up four. We had a couple opportunities. I don’t think fatigue had anything to do with that. Just missing some point-blank shots, you know? We were getting into what we wanted to get into.
“We just weren’t able to convert.”
Finney-Smith also said that, with this being the playoffs, no one wanted to come out of the game.
Redick explained that it wasn’t part of the plan going in. He even checked in on those players at the start of the fourth quarter and let them know there were timeouts to be used and a substitution if needed.
“I asked at them at beginning of the fourth quarter [how they were doing] and told them we had two extra timeouts,” Redick said. “‘If you need a sub, let us know.’ Those guys gave a lot.”
Wolves superstar Anthony Edwards saw it a bit differently.
“I felt like they were gassed going down the stretch,” Edwards said after the game. “So just trying to keep my foot on the pedal and keep going.”
The Wolves now head to L.A. for Game 5 on Wednesday at 10:00 p.m. EST.
