JJ Redick was desperate.
He came out of halftime Sunday afternoon with a new lineup, replacing Jaxson Hayes with Rui Hachimura at the 5 and inserting Dorian Finney-Smith. Redick doubled down on Hayes after Game 3. However, had the Los Angeles Lakers lost on Sunday, they would have been staring at a 3-1 hole against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“It wasn’t planned,” Redick said. “We just made the decision at halftime.”
Benching Hayes, who had only scored five points and played 26 minutes through the first three games, wasn’t desperate. If anything, it was expected. However, Redick rode that lineup for the entire second half. It was the first time in the shot-clock era that a team had played the same lineup for the entire half in the playoffs. He was desperate to tie the series at 2-2, but the Timberwolves were more desperate and took the 3-1 lead.
Minnesota led by three at halftime, closing the final 2:15 minutes on a 12-3 run. Anthony Edwards scored seven points on 4 of 4 from the floor. He had 19 points and four assists, and Julius Randle had 21 points on 7 of 11 shooting. Edwards and Randle had the team on their back. The rest of their teammates only shot 7 of 27.
Edwards and Randle kept pace with James and Dončić’s 43 combined points.
Minnesota was able to weather an unstoppable LeBron (38 points on 13 of 21 shooting) in Game 3, but Dončić was under the weather and scored 17 points on 6 of 16 from the floor. The Wolves had yet to win with James and Dončić at their best. Therefore, they needed a strong start to the third quarter. Instead, LA’s lineup change at halftime caught them off guard.
Los Angeles came out of halftime small. Hachimura (6’8”) was their center. Still, LA corralled three offensive rebounds in the first two minutes of the second half, and they were off to an 11-0 start. The Lakers deployed a 5-out approach, picking apart the Wolves with their passing and pump fakes, which created open lanes to the basket.
After Minnesota held the Lakers to 97.6 points per game on 44.2% shooting through the first three games, LA appeared to have figured out Chris Finch’s defense. The Lakers built an 11-point lead, threatening to tie the series at 2-2 and send Minnesota back to the drawing board ahead of Game 5. Instead, the Wolves fought back and got the game within four points with 3:47 left in the third.
“There wasn’t any panic,” Finch said postgame. “It’s been a hallmark of this team over the second half of the season. There’s been no real panic.”
Los Angeles closed the frame on a 14-8 run, retaking a 10-point lead heading into the fourth. The Wolves didn’t have an answer for LA’s small-ball lineup, but they needed to find one or they’d be heading back to Tinseltown for a three-game series. Benching Rudy Gobert again, which the Wolves did in Game 3, wasn’t going to be enough. Minnesota had to get more desperate than LA.
“I feel like we took their best punches throughout the game, to start the third, and then to end the third,” Edwards said. “I felt like they were gassed going down the stretch. So just trying to keep my foot on the pedal and keep going.”
Edwards was a steadying presence throughout the first three quarters, recording 31 points and occasionally taking a backseat while Randle punished mismatches in the paint.
However, Edwards had that look in his eye midway through the fourth quarter. The look of a guy who was going to take over another game. The look of a guy who was desperate for a win. He drilled his third three-pointer of the fourth, pulling the Wolves within four points with 7:42 remaining.
Ant hit his Spider-Man celebration, and Redick called a timeout. The triple itself and the roar it sparked from the Target Center crowd would have been enough to deflate LA. However, the Lakers were gassed, and Redick’s last-ditch effort at stealing Game 4 began to fall apart.
“Not on that one,” Redick responded when a reporter asked him if he second-guessed himself on playing one lineup for the entire second half. “Once you’ve made the decision, and they all are in, you’ve just got to trust them.”
It’s the playoffs. These are the best athletes in the world, and the lineup gave LA success. However, the fabric of Redick’s plan to give five players, one of whom is 40 years old, no breaks aside from timeouts for 24 minutes inherently had some flaws. Still, it didn’t unravel by itself. The Wolves desperately ripped holes in the plan.
“We just had to figure out some things defensively,” Finch said. “That was the biggest thing to solve at the [third] quarter break. They were getting loose in the middle of the floor, and using that as an opportunity to pick us apart at the three-point line.”
The Wolves held LA to 5 of 18 (27.8%) from the floor and 4 of 12 (33.3%) from deep in the fourth. Dončić had seven points, but he shot 1 of 7. Austin Reaves had six points, but he shot 2 of 7. Minnesota didn’t allow the Lakers to attack the paint easily and took away three-point attempts with more connected contests.
Finch ultimately closed with the same group he used in Game 3. He replaced Rudy Gobert with Naz Reid and Mike Conley with Donte DiVincenzo.
“Just being connected,” DiVincenzo responded postgame when a reporter asked him about the lineup. “On the offensive end, you can throw it to anybody, and anybody can get downhill and make plays for one another. … On the defensive end, we can switch, be physical, and be ourselves. At that point, it’s winning time, and that’s the only thing you’re trying to do – win the game.”
In the 4:49 fourth-quarter minutes Reid and DiVincenzo played alongside Edwards, Randle, and Jaden McDaniels, the Wolves outscored LA 19-6 and shot 5 of 8 from the floor, 7 of 7 from the free throw line, and 2 of 2 from deep.
Edwards and Reid landed haymakers, and the Wolves weathered a back-and-forth final few minutes, completely tearing Redick’s plan apart and proving they were the more desperate team. In the final seconds, the Timberwolves sealed their most impressive win since their Game 7 comeback against the Denver Nuggets.
“I’ve seen LeBron do it already,” Finney-Smith said postgame regarding LA coming back from a 3-1 deficit. “We still feel like we can win this series. We’ve just got to win one game at a time.
LeBron led the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers on a 3-1 comeback in the Finals. The Wolves can’t get complacent in Game 5, but there should be little concern amongst fans that the Lakers are going to dig out of this hole.
The Wolves will be riding confidence into Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday. They saw LeBron at his best in Game 3 (38 points on 13 of 21 shooting) and won. They saw Luka and LeBron combine for 65 points in Game 4 and won.
Minnesota’s offense was subpar in both games. On Sunday, they saw LA’s desperation move in the second half. Not only did the Wolves win, but they matched it with more desperation.
