Tim Legler questions JJ Redick’s no-sub strategy in Lakers’ Game 4 loss.
Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick has been blamed for his team’s loss in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Redick used only five players during the second half of the game. And despite the Lakers entering the 4th quarter with a 10-point lead, they ran out of gas and let the game slip away.
ESPN NBA analyst and former NBA player Tim Legler agreed that Redick’s strategy was flawed and that there was a reason the coaches didn’t use it. However, he believes something must have driven the Lakers’ first-year head coach to do what he did.
“They must be in dire straits,” said Legler on “The Dan Patrick Show.” “There must be a reason why you’d be pushed to an extreme measure like that. And any way you slice it, against a good team as good as defensively Minnesota is capable of being, to think you got five guys played 24 straight minutes, no physical break, no mental break, it’s not just a formula for success.”
The Lakers’ bench has been a non-factor
When Redick was asked about his strategy after the game, he told reporters that he did not plan to play the second half of Game 4 that way. But once he told his team what he wanted to do, they consented to going all out.
“It’s not a planned thing to play five guys an entire second half,” Redick explained. “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. Once you kind of made that decision and they’re all in, you just have to trust them,” Redick said.
But while JJ did not say the reason, it’s easy to point to the Lakers’ struggling bench as the culprit. In Game 1, the entire Lakers bench produced just 13 points, which was offset by Naz Reid alone, who had 23.
In Games 3 and 4, the Purple and Gold reserves combined for 25 points, with 14 of those coming from Dorian Finney-Smith, who was part of Game 4’s 24-minute lineup, taking the place of starting center Jaxson Hayes, who has been lackluster in the series at 1.8 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.
With a struggling bench, Redick did not want to take chances in a must-win game. Perhaps he also thought that if they pulled off Game 4, the guys would have a couple of days’ rest before the next game, which is slated for Wednesday.
However, in doing so, he overlooked that they entered Sunday’s game playing on less than 48 hours’ rest. Considering LeBron James logged in 41 minutes and Luka Doncic 40, he could’ve given them a few minutes rest just to get a breather. Legler’s ESPN colleague and fellow former player Kendrick Perkins agreed, saying that a five-man second-half rotation is not sustainable.
“Playing five guys for 24 straight minutes is unacceptable — all across the board — especially when you have a 40-year-old LeBron James who is in what feels like his hundredth season. He needed a blow. You could tell in the fourth quarter that he was tired. Luka was exhausted too,” said Perkins.
Anyone can say what they want about Redick’s tactic. But it was a high-risk and high-reward game plan that was one wrong no-call away from succeeding. With the L2M report saying Luka was fouled by Jayden McDaniels, the Lakers could have retaken the lead off free throws with over 30 seconds to play. And even if the Wolves scored, they would still have one timeout left to plot their final shot and get a better look.
But it is what it is. However, had the Lakers won, the same people criticizing JJ now would all be in the chorus, saying he is a genius for having the balls to play only five guys in the entire second half.