The Los Angeles Lakers were supposed to make quick work of the Minnesota Timberwolves in Round 1 of the playoffs, but that hasn’t been the case. The team is now staring at a 2-1 hole.
Game 3 was a very strange one for the Lakers due to Luka Doncic dealing with a serious stomach illness. With him not 100%, LeBron James and Austin Reaves were the only Lakers players to step up.
A big reason why the team is down 2-1 in the series has been due to some sloppy basketball. The Lakers had 16 turnovers compared to just six from the Timberwolves. Head coach JJ Redick believes that the biggest reason for the loss.
“We’re gonna have some turnovers,” Redick said. “Sometimes they force you into turnovers, which they did. But we also had some unforced turnovers: over-dribbling, trying to draw fouls, dribbling into traffic, trying to do a little bit too much with the basketball. We generated a lot of really good shots when we didn’t turn [the ball] over.”
LeBron James Also Chimes in on Turnover Issues
LeBron James has played a ton of playoff basketball, so he knows what a team needs to do to win. While Doncic’s struggles could be chalked up to him not feeling well, there’s no excuse for the other players to be playing so sloppily.
James noted the importance of playing clean basketball in the playoffs.
“First of all, in the postseason, there is no room for error,” James said. “In the regular season, you’re able to make up for certain things throughout the course of a regular season. You can have a little bit of room for error. When our team was constructed, at one point, in the regular season, we didn’t have much room for that as well.
“In the postseason, obviously, you’re not going to play a perfect game. But the more you make mistakes on top of mistakes on top of mistakes, things that can be controlled, then it’s not going to give you an opportunity to be in the best possible chance to win. They had 13 more [shots] than we did. Pretty much, that’ll be the game right then. We had 78 attempts. They had 91. That’s just with turnovers, live ball turnovers.”
Lakers Have No Rim Protection
Another thing that’s hurting the Lakers is that Jaxson Hayes has been borderline unplayable this series. He was only on the court for nine minutes in Game 3.
While Redick didn’t call him out by name, he lamented the fact that the Lakers don’t have anybody to protect the rim.
“The fact is we don’t have ‘rim protection,’” Redick said. “So if you give up blow-bys, we’re gonna give up something. We’re gonna give up a 3 or we’re gonna give up a shot from him at the rim.”
If the Lakers go down 3-1, it’s going to be hard to come back. Reaves is ready do play as hard as he can to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“Go play as hard as you possibly can,” Reaves said. “You can give yourself an opportunity to win and then go back to L.A. tied at 2-2 and it’s basically, obviously, a three-game series from there. So we’ll be ready, focused and we’ll go compete as hard as we possibly can.”
