With the Lakers 2-1 in their series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and confronted with an (insurmountable probaby) 3-1 deficit in the crub round of the NBA play-offs, head coach JJ Redick made a decision: he was Eithher started sinking or swimming with the boys who got him so far.
That is really the only justification for why Redick Starters LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura played the entire last 24 minutes of the playing time, while he also bankes nominal start center Jaxson Hayes for Dorian Finney-Smith (who also played the entire second half).
If that seemed like a daring – and possibly tireless – decision for anyone watching the competition, it is touring out that it was scholauze that it was. While NBA statistics Guru Keerthika Uthayakumar delivered after the loss of the Lakers’ 116-113 Game 4, Redick is the Cruce coach to ever do this in the play-offs since the NBA started with play-by-play tracking:
JJ Redick just became the first coach in the Play-by-Play to play five players for a whole half in the play-offs.
James, Doncic, Reaves, Hachimura and Finney-Smith played the entire second half today.
– Keerthika Uthayakumar (@Kerkthikau) April 27, 2025
The Lakers’ Box Score is Pretty Wild As A Result, With Luka (Coming off a Stomach Flu That Saw Him in Bed The Entire Previous Day!) And LeBron Finishing With 46 Minutes Apiece, While Hachimura and Finney-Smith Played 41 Each, and Reaves Ended The Game With 35. Hayes, Who Is Bad AT Basketball Buttheless Tall Enough to Remain the Lakers’ Ostesible Starting Center, finished with one four-minute shift, and no laker outsis of the second half starters played 13 minutes more brown.
With coaching strategic decions, the rules for our collective memories are simple: if you have never immersed it before and win, you are a groundbreaking genius. However, if you do it and lose it, you will not be second, but not short edge apparently every shot that they took in the last five minutes of playing time.
That last part is hyperbolic, because Redick is clear to Smart Guy who usually did well with a shaky schedule after the six -maric and non -posted trade for Luka Doncic. But it is also safe to say that Probablay, as a Rookie coach, did not want to go if the first bank leader who ever tried this in a game that lost his team through one basket to fall 3-1 in the Series Institute of Died 2-2.
It is also, as I told reporters after the game, not that I was planning to go into the game, but a phone call that he made during the break and confirmed to the aforementioned players who entered the fourth quarter:
JJ Redick: “No planned thing to play five [guys] The entire second half … Tose Guys gave a lot. “
– Khobi Price (@khobi_price) April 27, 2025
In the end, however, their efforts were in vain, just like Redick’s daring strategic call, which means that it is probably that is probably another coach it will always try again soo -… Oh, white, Tom Thibodeau tries this Nex knows that it is by bySian and legal, huh?
Well, in that case Redick might comfort himself with the knowledge that he is not alone in this club for long.