LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick saw the urgency he was anticipating Tuesday while his team practiced before what could be its final game of a tumultuous season.
“I would describe us as on edge,” Redick said. “As we should be.
The Lakers aren’t the only high seed with its collective back against the gym wall heading into a high-stakes Wednesday in the NBA playoffs.
The third-seeded Lakers and the second-seeded Rockets both won division titles this season while barely outlasting several competitors in the tight Western Conference, where only four wins separated second-seeded Houston from eighth-seeded Memphis.
But the Lakers and Rockets are both on the brink of elimination now: The Minnesota Timberwolves and the Golden State Warriors are taking 3-1 leads on the road with the chance to finish these first-round series and send themselves into a second-round matchup with each other.
We definitely have to treat it like Game 7,” Luka Doncic said. “If you lose, you go home, no matter what. We can’t look in the future. Got to focus on this game, and then from there go on.
The only advantage from earning those slightly higher seeds is arriving now: The Lakers and Rockets both get to play at home in Game 5 — and in Game 7, if either makes it that far.
We have to play with a sense of desperation,” Redick said. “Can’t change what’s already happened, and you can’t feel sorry for yourself.
The big-picture reasons why the Lakers and Rockets find themselves in this predicament are clear, and even logical.
That won’t make first-round exits any easier to swallow if they can’t rally from this daunting deficit.
The Lakers are still building their identity and teamwork after the midseason trade to land Doncic. Their new Slovenian superstar only played 21 games alongside LeBron James during the regular season — hardly enough time to figure out a consistent winning approach, as Los Angeles is learning in the first round against Anthony Edwards and the more tested Wolves.
“We don’t have much practice together, so it’s hard to get the chemistry on the court, but I think we’re ready for it,” Doncic said. “We could have won some games (in the series). Little mistakes cost us, but we’re still confident we can win, and we’re going to go after (it with) everything.”
The Rockets got back in the playoffs after a four-season absence with a revitalizing season under coach Ime Udoka. Houston won 52 games despite lacking a top-25 scorer and relying largely on defensive intensity — but that formula hasn’t looked like enough to take four games from Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler.
The Warriors seized control of this feisty series Monday night by taking over in the fourth quarter. Butler did much of the work while playing through injury, scoring 23 points in the second half and 14 in the final period.
For all their toughness, the Rockets’ lack of a top offensive player was glaring in Game 4. Leading scorer Jalen Green didn’t get a bucket in the fourth quarter — not even taking a shot during the 7:02 he spent on the court — and finished with just eight points.
Yet the Rockets will draw hope from the fact they kept it close, with Fred VanVleet missing a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Houston is hoping a return home will spark Green, who hit eight 3-pointers and scored 38 points in the Rockets’ Game 2 victory
Los Angeles is staggered after back-to-back losses at Minnesota despite leading in the fourth quarter of both games, including a seven-point advantage with five minutes left in Game 4. At least the Lakers are back in their downtown arena, where they compiled the NBA’s third-best home record this season — although that didn’t help in Game 1, which the Wolves won handily.
Edwards criticized the intensity of the Lakers’ home crowd earlier in the series, but he decided after Game 4 that Los Angeles’ downtown arena is a difficult place to play after all.
I told them it’s going to be the toughest game that we’ve played all season, all series, because everyone is going to be against us,” Edwards said. “It’s going to be 300,000 people and then the Timberwolves, 12 players and the coaches and the people in the organization that travels with us. Back against the wall in enemy territory. These are the moments that we should live for — going on the road and trying to close a team out. It’s going to be tough, going to be a tough atmosphere, but it should be fun. If you like competing at the highest level, I told them it should be fun.
Edwards thought the Lakers looked tired in the fourth quarter of Game 4 after Redick curiously played the same five players for the entire second half — and many Lakers fans thought Edwards was correct, exposing Redick to some of the most significant criticism he has faced in his successful rookie season.
Redick rejected that notion Tuesday, instead suggesting the Lakers’ poor execution down the stretch in their 19-point fourth quarter of Game 4 — with none of those points from James — were symptomatic of a fourth-quarter malaise throughout the series
Looking back now, what did we score, 19, 20, 13 in the fourth quarter (of the first three games)?” Redick asked. “It’s a trend. More so than that, our two best players missed layups at the rim (in Game 4). I don’t think they missed layups because they were tired.”
