The Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in a deficit in the 3-1 series at the Minnesota Timberwolves after abandoning matches 3 and 4 in overtime on the road.
Match 4, in particular, was frustrating because the Lakers led almost all along the journey, but gave it to the end. A key game was in the last minute when the Lakers dragged the ball.
Luka Donnic raised the ball on the ground when he seemed to be tripped by Jaden McDaniels. He fell on the ground just before half of the field, but no whistle was blown away, he was therefore forced to call the waiting period. There were 17 on the shooting stopwatch at the time, so it had only one second to make it cross the line after the dead time and ended up turning it back. Anthony Edwards then made a pair of free throws and Austin Reaves missed a triple with a tie the buzzer, resulting in the loss of three points.
If the fault had been called, Donic would have gone to the line with a chance to give the Lakers’ head. They would also have kept the dead time that they had to burn.
After the match, the Lakers head coach, JJ Redick, was naturally upset because he thought that a fault should have been called, via Spectrum Sportsnet:
“Well, let’s start with Luka Troubuché. It was a blatant journey, he did not fall alone. We watched him, he was stumbled. So we should have been at the line of free throws. This is not an excuse to explain why we lost, but he was clogged and we had the chance to climb.”
Dononic also considered that it was triggered and that the Lakers had to call an expiration time:
“I think I’m triggered, that’s for sure. We had to call the waiting period. “
The NBA published its daily report of the last two minutes on Monday and confirmed that Dononic was indeed at fault when it was launched by McDaniels:
Not that this counts, but the L2M report confirmed that Luka Doncic had been the victim of a fault by Jaden McDaniels during the trip. pic.twitter.com/mmgmtazywu
– Daniel Starkand (@starkand) April 28, 2025
Of course, that does not mean anything because they will not go back and replay the game. The Lakers are still faced with a deficit of 3-1 and must win three consecutive to maintain their life in life, starting with the game 5 at home on Wednesday evening.
Whatever the way the officials do, the Lakers must take them to close these competitions because the 3 and 4 matches were there for the catch and they could not do it.
Rui Hachimura: Lakers must repair the “little things” at the end of the games
Regarding the way Lakers can be better late in matches, Rui Hachimura thinks that it amounts to doing little things.
“I think we are here, we just have to repair the little things and we have to execute. The last five minutes, six minutes, although we are more mentally concentrated, physically. We must be stronger, we have to do these gunshots. So yes, we are there, we just have to solve them.”
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