Somehow, the Lakers concealed the shortcoming in plain sight for months, enough to where the situation looked manageable. That was then. Now, in a postseason series against an athletic team with size, their lack of a big man has become a major problem. Now, as the Lakers find themselves with a two-games-to-one deficit in their first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the absence of a reliable center could be why their season comes to a premature end.<\/p>\n
Luka Doncic was said to be feeling awful on Friday night, and his play reflected it. However, an equal, if not greater, factor in the Lakers\u2019 116-104 loss to the Timberwolves in Game 3 was the team\u2019s complete inability to protect the rim.
\nTimberwolves forward Julius Randle shoots over Lakers forward Rui Hachimura, guard Gabe Vincent and guard Luka Doncic in Game 3 of their series Friday at the Target Center.
\n(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times)
\nConsidering how Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards practically skipped to their basket on Saturday night at Target Center, the Lakers might as well have replaced their free-throw lane with a red carpet.<\/p>\n
The Timberwolves knew the Lakers couldn\u2019t stop them, and the numbers reflected their lack of respect. They attempted 45 shots in the paint, compared to 28 for the Lakers. They scored 56 points in the paint, compared to 26 for the Lakers. McDaniels scored 30 points, including 24 in the paint. Edwards finished with 29 points and a team-high eight assists.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact is we don\u2019t have rim protection,\u201d Lakers coach JJ Redick said. \u201cSo if you give up blow-bys, we\u2019re gonna give up something.\u201d The Lakers technically have a center in seven-footer Jaxson Hayes, but Redick clearly doesn\u2019t want to play him, evidenced by how Hayes has logged nine or fewer minutes in each of the three games of this series. The nine minutes Hayes played on Friday were particularly destructive, as he registered a plus\/minus of minus-13.<\/p>\n
The Lakers knew this could be a problem, which is why they had a deal in place to acquire center Mark Williams for the Charlotte Hornets before the trade deadline. But Williams underwent a physical examination, the Lakers were concerned with what they saw, and the trade was rescinded. Perhaps general manager Rob Pelinka should have gambled on the 7-foot Williams, who was healthy for the remainder of the regular season. Or perhaps Pelinka should have lined up contingencies in case the trade for Williams didn\u2019t work out. Or perhaps he should have gathered more accurate information on the injury-prone Williams beforehand, which could have saved the Lakers time and afforded them the luxury of redirecting their efforts elsewhere. Or perhaps there was nothing he could have done, given the shortage of available big men.
\nLakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt and Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels fight for a loose ball during Game 3 of their playoff series Friday at the Target Center.
\n(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
None of that matters now. What\u2019s done is done, and the season autopsy can wait until the summer. The Lakers have a series to win. Figuring out how to do that is the job of Redick, who said he believed his team could overcome its size deficit. \u201cWe\u2019ve done it all year,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we\u2019ve been at our best, we\u2019ve been able to be physical on the ball and not allow blow-bys and also have sort of a cover mentality, multiple effort and it was there at times tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forward Dorian Finney-Smith shared a similar view. \u201cJust gotta do a better job of standing in front of the ball,\u201d Finney-Smith said. \u201cI feel like we were just giving up too many blow-bys, and it really ain\u2019t had nothing to do with our size. It was just on-base defense and rotations outside of when we gotta scramble. I feel like we didn\u2019t have the sense of urgency the whole game, and they did.\u201d Redick pointed to some of the other mistakes made by his team. \u201cI think we had two [plays] where we collected a rebound, we get backtapped, we give up a point,\u201d he said. \u201cThose things really, really accumulate, especially when you\u2019re turning the ball over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Provided Doncic recovers from whatever made him vomit over and over in the hours leading up to the Game 3, the Lakers have two of the best players in the league in him and James. They have a dangerous No. 3 option in Austin Reaves. They have solid defenders in Finney-Smith and Jarred Vanderbilt. But they don\u2019t have a big man, and at this moment, what they don\u2019t have feels as important as what they do.<\/p>\n
Lakers’ Biggest Vulnerability Exposed Introduction to the Problem Somehow, the Lakers concealed the shortcoming in plain sight for months, enough to where the situation looked manageable. That was then. Now, in a postseason series against an athletic team with size, their lack of a big man has become a major problem. Now, as the Lakers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/6f44b12\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4949x2598+0+0\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff5%2Fe0%2F828d7c794437a7e13db39e29b59e%2F1503353-sp-0425-lakers-twolves-gm3-rcg-20.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13235,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13233\/revisions\/13235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}