When JJ Redick took the Lakers teaching job 10 months in the past, he vowed that they’d use math to their benefit. Tuesday, standing in the identical constructing the place he made that pledge, he mentioned one thing that might’ve made Isaac Newton hearth an apple off the wall.
“We have to win Game 5 and that’s it. It’s been conveyed by coaches [and] players,” Redick mentioned. “Tomorrow’s a Game 7 for us.”
Overlook that 5 and 7 are totally different numbers or that for the Lakers to play an precise Recreation 7 on this first-round playoff collection towards Minnesota, they should win two extra occasions. Redick’s theorem continues to be sound.
“We definitely should treat it like Game 7. We lose and go home,” star guard Luka Doncic mentioned. “No matter what, we can’t look in the future. So we got to focus on this game and then, from there, go on.”
So what does enjoying Recreation 5 like Recreation 7 imply?
“You gotta treat every possession as an individual thing that you gotta go attack,” guard Austin Reaves mentioned. “And the more the game goes on, obviously when you get to the fourth quarter and it’s a close game, those plays matter more than the one did the first two minutes of the game. But if you go in with a mentality like that of every single play matters and you execute to the best of your ability, you’re never gonna be perfect, but you’ll give yourself a good opportunity to win.”
The Lakers had the luxurious of an additional time off following a heartbreaking Recreation 4 loss in Minnesota earlier than returning to observe Tuesday. Redick mentioned the temper of the group as “on edge as we should be.”
Redick mentioned he pointed to that as a pattern extra so than the 24 straight minutes he performed Doncic, Reaves, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith within the second half Sunday.
“Our two best players missed layups at the end. I don’t think they missed layups because they were tired,” he mentioned.
The vibes shouldn’t be good across the group, the Lakers having been badly overwhelmed on the shut of quarters and within the fourth quarter all through the collection.
“Got to make more shots. That’s it,” Doncic mentioned of fourth quarters. “I think we had some good shots. We didn’t make it. Obviously, me, Bron, AR, we got to walk the game down at this point. So, me starting, I got to do a better job of closing the game out.”
Redick wouldn’t say whether or not or not he’d begin that group in Recreation 5. He did say he spoke with gamers who usually would’ve performed within the second half and didn’t.
“I spoke to everyone yesterday that would’ve potentially played in the second half. They all understood it,” he mentioned. “There was no issue with that.”
The Lakers mentioned they hope to duplicate a number of the success they’d within the third quarter of Recreation 4 once they had been capable of transfer the ball extra and create pictures higher than those they obtained counting on one-on-one assaults. That was clear on movie.
“We thought we could have had it,” Doncic mentioned. “It was little mistakes that cost us the game. But just looking at the third quarter, how we played and how we shared the ball, the way we were flying around, it gives me confidence for next game.”
The Lakers know the mathematics is towards them — solely 13 groups down 3-1 have got here again to win a collection. However at this stage of the playoffs, what does math matter?
“We gotta go compete,” Reaves mentioned. “Play as hard as we possibly can and treat it like a Game 7.”
