Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick is catching a lot of heat for a tactical decision that arguably pushed his team to the brink of elimination.
The Lakers trailed the Minnesota Timberwolves 61-58 to start the third quarter in Game 4 of their first-round series Sunday at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn. With a series-tying win in sight, the Lakers caught fire coming out of halftime.
Los Angeles began the quarter on a 14-0 run that included a stretch of four consecutive made threes. Redick rode his starters for the rest of the quarter as the Lakers built a 94-84 lead entering the final period.
Instead of using the 10-point cushion to rest his key players, Redick doubled down. The first-year head coach kept his starters in for all 24 minutes of the second half. The Lakers still had a seven-point lead with five minutes to play. But once fatigue started to set in for the Lakers in the closing minutes, the Timberwolves stormed back to win 116-113.
Redick became the first coach in the play-by-play era to play the same five players for an entire half of a playoff game.
JJ Redick in the 2nd half:
— Lakers Better (@LakersBetter) April 27, 2025
Rui Hachimura: 24 MIN
LeBron James: 24 MIN
Austin Reaves: 24 MIN
Luka Doncic: 24 MIN
Dorian Finney Smith: 24 MIN
The 1st time in NBA playoff history a substitution wasn’t made in a half 🤯 pic.twitter.com/sWCxwFlK3d
Several fans criticized Redick for employing such a strategy.
JJ Redick coaching like he’s playing nba 2k with the player fatigue off. How do you not make one 2nd half sub???
— Jeremiah (@JeremiahWise_) April 27, 2025
JJ redick just played 5 players the entire second half when they had the lead. Lebron James never sat. That cannot happen if you wanna win a championship. Talk about panicking
— Dylan Pease (@dpease23) April 27, 2025
JJ Redick will have to LIVE with the decision to Play 5 guys the WHOLE second half
— Dr. Evan Jeffries, DPT (@GameInjuryDoc) April 27, 2025
A 1-2 minute blow wouldn’t have hurt anyone when you were up 10
During his postgame press conference, Redick explained that the move was a risk the team had agreed to take at halftime.
Given that the Lakers were relying on a 40-year-old LeBron James and a less-than-conditioned Luka Doncic, it’s not hard to see why the purple and gold struggled down the stretch.
Doncic went 1/6 in the fourth quarter, scoring five of his seven points in the period at the free throw line. James took just two fourth-quarter shots and missed both of them. It didn’t help that the Lakers were also on the wrong end of a blatant missed call down the stretch.
