The Los Angeles Lakers’ playoff run came to an end much sooner than many expected after losing in five games to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs. As the Lakers turn the page, coach J.J. Redick believes improving their title hopes for the next season begins right away, calling on his players to get in shape this offseason.
“We have a ways to go as a roster,” Redick told reporters Thursday. “There are individuals that were in phenomenal shape. There’s certainly other ones that could have been in better shape.
“That’s where my mind goes immediately, is we have to get in championship shape.”
NBA fans quickly began speculating that Redick was talking about Luka Dončić, whose conditioning and defense were highly scrutinized in Los Angeles’ five-game loss to Minnesota. There were several moments in the series where Dončić was blown by a Timberwolves ballhandler for a relatively easy bucket or caused the Lakers’ defense to have to rotate and leave another player open.
But there were some stats to back up the notion that Dončić’s conditioning wasn’t the best during this series, either. In the Lakers’ 116-113 loss to the Timberwolves in Game 4, the 6-foot-6 Dončić only had one rebound in 46 minutes. Even though Dončić averaged 30.2 points per game over the course of the series, his play notably took a dip in the fourth quarter, too. He only scored 20 points on 5 of 15 shooting in the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ four losses.
“First Things First” cohost Chris Broussard believes that Dončić’s fourth-quarter play, along with LeBron James’, throughout the series was why the Lakers ultimately lost.
“[The Lakers’] two superstars didn’t deliver in the fourth quarter,” Broussard said. “These games came down to the fourth quarters. Game 3, when it was tied 1-1, Minnesota entered the fourth quarter leading by two points. They (the Timberwolves) ended up winning by 12. In Game 4, the Lakers were up by 10 points but ended losing by three. Game 5, LeBron looked physically spent, but the fact of the matter is, going into the fourth quarter, Minnesota was winning by a point and ended up winning by seven. In those three games, Minnesota outscored the Lakers by 29 points in the fourth quarter.
“The Lakers shot 29% from the field in the series in the fourth quarter. That’s the worst of any team in the postseason ever. If you look back six years from now, 16 years from now, they’ll say, ‘Luka averaged 30/7/6, and LeBron averaged 25/9/6, and they couldn’t even make it to a sixth game?’ They did all their damage in the first three quarters.”
Broussard’s cohost Nick Wright also believes that Dončić holds the “lion’s share of the blame” for the series loss.
“I think this is the first series of his basketball life where he either had the advantage from the team around him or it was a fair fight and his team lost because he didn’t deliver,” Wright said. “We’ve never seen that happen to him in the playoffs. We’ve seen him undermanned and lose or overdeliver and win. He was not the player in this series that I think most of us anticipated he would be based on his postseason history.”
Dončić’s defense has been scrutinized in recent seasons, with his play on that end of the court being viewed as a major reason why the Dallas Mavericks lost to the Boston Celtics in the 2024 NBA Finals. The Celtics had a 67.7% blow-by percentage on drives against Dončić through the first three games of the NBA Finals as they took a 3-0 series lead, according to Second Spectrum. Prior to his trade to the Lakers in February, Dončić had a 44.7% blow-by percentage as the primary defender on all drives since the start of the 2023-24 season, which was the worst mark in the league during that stretch, per Second Spectrum.
There was a span, though, where it appeared Dončić had improved his play on that side of the court. For a few weeks after the trade, the Lakers statistically had one of the best defenses in basketball.
While Paul Pierce believes that signing a star who hasn’t been known to play high-level defense through the first seven seasons of his career is a lost cause, Ric Bucher thinks more should be asked of Dončić on that end of the court.
“Why are we accepting that?” Bucher asked on the latest editiof of “Speak.” “He doesn’t have to be a great defender. Steph Curry became a much better defender over the years. That’s all I’m asking for Luka. Luka plays no defense. Why can’t I get [Dončić playing defense well] consistently? … The Luka that we saw in this series doesn’t have to be the Luka we see [going forward]. Why can’t he be what we saw in the regular season? Just give me a little bit of energy.”
Dončić and Redick have spoken glowingly about each other since the Lakers acquired him in February, as the two were briefly teammates. Mavericks president of basketball operations Nico Harrison has said that Dončić’s defense was one of the reasons why Dallas made the controversial trade back in February, which some thought would light a fire under the Lakers star.
With Redick seemingly calling out Dončić and his defense still lacking, though, Broussard believes that the “honeymoon phase” between Dončić, the Lakers and basketball fans in general is over. Now, it’s on Dončić to fix the holes in his game so he can get the monkey off his back, according to Broussard.
“There gets to a point, six, seven years, whatever it is, where it’s like, you’ve got to win,” Broussard added. “People start nitpicking at your game as to why you’re not there. Luka’s there now. It’s not even nitpicking with the defense.
“We said about the trade that if Luka was going to get lazy and not maximize his ability, he will now because of the trade. Well, will he? That’s still a question out there. To me, this needs to be the offseason of his career.”
