The Los Angeles Lakers are on the brink of elimination, facing a 3-1 deficit in the first-round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. They most recently collapsed in Game 4, blowing a 10-point fourth-quarter lead with multiple turnovers in the final minutes.
Luka Doncic scored well with 38 points on 13/28 shooting, but he only had two assists and one rebound, and his defense wasn’t great either. Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards was hunting for Doncic on switches often and that led to 43 points for Edwards. But some are using this performance as a reason why the Mavericks were correct to trade Doncic.
ESPN analyst and former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins, who has some of the hottest (dumbest) takes in the NBA today, had this to say about Doncic’s Game 4 performance on First Take.
“Watching the fourth quarter… I saw what Nico Harrison was talking about when it comes down to the reason he traded Luka. He traded Luka because he felt that the Dallas Mavericks were not going to be able to win a championship with Luka. We all know this. I didn’t feel that way watching the game looking at Anthony Edwards. I’m saying to myself, ‘Anthony Edwards is going to win a championship before Luka Doncic. Anthony Edwards is built different. Anthony Edwards is a better all-around basketball player than Luka Doncic.’ I could come on here and… blame JJ Redick, rightfully so, for the minutes that he played LeBron James at 40 years old. But like I said, Luka is young. He should’ve been able to play those 24 minutes straight. Anthony Edwards did, and Anthony Edwards thrived in those minutes.”
It was an interesting strategy for JJ Redick in Game 4, who became the first coach in NBA history to play the same five players for the entire second half. That’s a big risk with an older LeBron James and a still-not-totally-in-shape Luka Doncic.
It’s hard to call Anthony Edwards a better player than Luka Doncic because of this one series when Doncic just sent the Timberwolves packing last year on the way to the NBA Finals, and Doncic was three wins away from a championship last season. The Timberwolves have size on the inside; the Lakers have Jaxson Hayes for four minutes and then they go to Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith as the centers. We saw with the Mavericks how big having vertical floor-spacers on the interior matters to Doncic when they got Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford.
As the Lakers continue to build a better roster around Doncic and he gets healthier/in better shape (hopefully), he’ll be able to put a lot of these discussions to bed, because he is still one of the three best players in the NBA. But it may be too late to overcome this deficit.
