As the Lakers departed from the court at Target Center with their heads down, white towels were being whirled everywhere around them.
The crowd was doing more than celebrating the home team’s 116-113 victory on Sunday afternoon. The 19,289 fans here could see what was happening. They could feel what was happening.
Four games into this first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Lakers haven’t figured out what to do.
They haven’t figured out how to stop Anthony Edwards. They haven’t figured out how to stop the Timberwolves from overwhelming them in the paint. They haven’t figured out how to stop their opponents from grabbing offensive rebound after offensive rebound.
Now, they’re down three games to one, and another defeat will finish their season.
Two days after stomach problems reduced him to practically being an on-court spectator, Luka Doncic returned to score 38 points.
That didn’t matter.
LeBron James contributed in every dimension of the game, finishing with 27 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists, three steals and three blocks.
That didn’t matter either.
At this stage of the season, against this particular opponent, their shortcomings are outweighing the strengths, and coach JJ Redick doesn’t sound as if he has any answers.
“Certainly played well enough to win,” Redick said. “Gave the effort to win.”
Redick complained about a couple of late-game calls,and he was justified in doing so, but a referee’s whistle won’t be what saves the season.
The Timberwolves present matchup problems for the Lakers, and the Lakers might not have the necessary personnel to reverse their deficit.
As well as Doncic and James played, Edwards outshined them both, scoring a game-high 43 points while also contributing nine rebounds and six assists.
The Lakers’ desperation was perhaps best represented by Redick’s second-half substitutions: There weren’t any.
“We just made a decision at halftime,” Redick said.
The team’s third-quarter starters — Doncic, James, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith — played the entire second half.
“Those guys,” Redick said, “gave a lot.”
The Lakers scored a series-high 36 points in the third quarter to take a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter but predictably ran out of gas against a Timberwolves team with a deeper roster.
“This is the playoffs,” Doncic said. “Fatigue shouldn’t play a role.”
That doesn’t mean it won’t.
“It was tough,” Finney-Smith acknowledged.
The team’s lack of a center came into even sharper focus, as Jaxson Hayes never reentered the game after picking up his second foul just four minutes into the game.
If the Lakers are to come back from this three-games-to-one deficit, it will start with Doncic, who was said by Redick to be throwing up “all afternoon” leading up to their Game 3 defeat.
Doncic said he spent the day between Games 3 and 4, “mostly laying down.”
“Today,” Doncic said, “I felt better.”
And the Lakers started better.
They did in the opening quarter what Redick implored them to do, which was to take better care of the basketball.
They committed only one turnover in the first 12 minutes of the game, after which they were ahead, 32-28.
They weren’t as careful in the second quarter, however.
The Lakers turned over the ball four times in the opening five minutes of the quarter. Their lead quickly vanished, and they went into halftime with a 61-58 deficit.
The Lakers deserved to be down by more, but James and Doncic kept them in the game by themselves, the two stars carrying nearly the entire offensive load as Reaves’ minutes were limited by early foul trouble.
James and Doncic scored 22 and 21 points in the first half, respectively. The last time the Lakers had multiple players score 20 or more points in a single half of a postseason game was on May 31, 2002 against the Sacramento Kings.
The two players who did it then: Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
Only three Lakers other than James and Doncic scored in the first half: Hachimura, Finney-Smith and Hayes.
The Lakers opened the second half with a 14-0 run, with a three-pointer by Reaves extending their lead to 72-61. They were ahead by as many as 12 points, only for the Timberwolves to do against them what they have done the entire series.
