The Los Angeles Lakers have their backs against the wall going into Game 5 of their first round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Down 3-1, Luka Doncic and LeBron James will need to lead this team to their best performance of the season in order to stave off elimination and extend their season at least one more game.
Coming off a disappointing Game 4 loss in which they were unable to hold a late lead down the stretch, the Lakers know there are still some things to fix. But after watching the film, Doncic feels the third quarter of Game 4 was the best they’ve played all series.
“The way we played in the third quarter, I think we played our best basketball,” Doncic said after practice on Tuesday. “So we looked at the third quarter and what we did great and just follow that.”
The Lakers outscored the Timberwolves by 13 in that quarter and things were clicking. Despite not being able to maintain it in the fourth, that level of play they showed in the third gives Doncic confidence going into Game 5.
“Some little mistakes cost us the game, but just looking at the third quarter, how we played, how we shared the ball, we were flying around. It gives me confidence for the next game.”
One thing the Lakers must do is remain confident as this is a win or go home situation and Luka feels this team has to treat it as such.
“We definitely should treat it like Game 7,” Doncic added. “If you lose, you go home no matter what. We can’t look into the future, so we gotta focus on this game and then from there go on.”
This is a message that has been echoed by LeBron as well. The Lakers have to take things one game at a time and focus solely on winning Game 5 before worrying about anything else. But they also must believe this comeback is possible and Doncic feels the Lakers believe.
“Confident,” Luka responded when asked about their mood heading into Game 5. “Confidence is a big part of it. Like I said, we gotta treat it like it’s Game 7 and we gotta stay together.”
If the Lakers come out with Game 7 energy and step up alongside Doncic and James, then there is a good chance they will push this series back to Minnesota for another game.
Something else that would greatly help the Lakers extend this series is improving their fourth quarter play. So far this series, they have been outscored by 36 points in the fourth and Luka Doncic had a simple idea on how they can turn that around.
“We gotta make shots, it’s easy,” Doncic said. “I think we got some good shots, we didn’t make it. Obviously me, LeBron and AR, we gotta walk the game down at this point. Starting with me, we gotta do a better job of closing the game out.”
