‘Like a Game 7’: Lakers sharpen focus for Game 5 vs. Timberwolves

When JJ Redick took the Lakers coaching job 10 months ago, he vowed that they would use math to their advantage. Tuesday, standing in the same building where he made that pledge, he said something that would’ve made Isaac Newton fire an apple off the wall.

“We have to win Game 5 and that’s it. It’s been conveyed by coaches [and] players,” Redick said. “Tomorrow’s a Game 7 for us.”

Forget that five and seven are different numbers or that for the Lakers to play an actual Game 7 in this first-round playoff series against Minnesota, they need to win two more times. Redick’s theorem is still sound.

“We definitely should treat it like Game 7. We lose and go home,” star guard Luka Doncic said. “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 playing Game 5 like Game 7 mean?

“You gotta treat every possession as an individual thing that you gotta go attack,” guard Austin Reaves said. “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 luxury of an extra day off following a heartbreaking Game 4 loss in Minnesota before returning to practice Tuesday. Redick said the mood of the group as “on edge as we should be.”

Redick said he pointed to that as a trend more so than the 24 straight minutes he played Doncic, Reaves, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith in 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 said.

The vibes shouldn’t be good around the team, the Lakers having been badly beaten at the close of quarters and in the fourth quarter throughout the series.

“Got to make more shots. That’s it,” Doncic said 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 he’d start that group in Game 5. He did say he spoke with players who normally would’ve played in 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 said. “There was no issue with that.”

The Lakers said they hope to replicate some of the success they had in the third quarter of Game 4 when they were able to move the ball more and create shots better than the ones they got relying on one-on-one attacks. That was clear on film.

“We thought we could have had it,” Doncic said. “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 math is against them — only 13 teams down 3-1 have came back to win a series. But at this stage of the playoffs, what does math matter?

“We gotta go compete,” Reaves said. “Play as hard as we possibly can and treat it like a Game 7.”