The Los Angeles Lakers finished their season on Wednesday evening with the Minnesota Timberwolves, suffering from a humiliating defeat from 103 to 96 on their home field in match 5 of their series of series series in the first round.
Needless to say, fans were disappointed with the team’s performance, and a particular area has stood out most. Bill Simmons, who was present in the game, briefly summarized the gaps of the Lakers in an post-match tweet, indicating that it was the lack of effort, especially on the glass, which was the loss of Los Angeles.
“I went to the game. One of the reasons why the Lakers could not get rebounds was because no one on the Lakers was really tried to get rebounds. Usually, when you cannot get rebounds, you travel under the basket where the rebounds are. Or you have put people and then try to get the rebounds,” Simmons wrote.
The reality of the situation is that the Lakers simply had no response to Rudy Gobert, who probably had the biggest release in the playoffs of his career in match 5 on Wednesday. The Frenchman was a strength in painting, accumulating a summit in 27 -point playoffs to go with 24 rebounds. Los Angeles as a team had fewer offensive rebounds (8) than Gobert (9) in the match.
Despite their ineffective strategy on the glass, the Lakers have chosen to continue rolling with a smaller range composed of Austin Reaves, Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith throughout the night. Max Kleber and Jarred Vanderbilt played only five and 19 minutes, respectively, while other great men such as Jaxson Hayes and Alex Len have not seen the ground at all. Whether or not they are a better match against Gobert remains to be seen, but JJ Redick has made no adjustment when it comes to solving their misfortunes in painting.
Simmons clearly said that it was not only a match problem, stressing how no one in the team seemed interested in contributing to rebounds or even boxing their opponents.
