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MINNEAPOLIS – The Los Angeles Lakers found themselves in unenviable territory following their 116-104 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 3 of their opening-round playoff series.
In playoff history, the team that has won Game 3 in a 1-1 series has gone on to win the series 73.3 percent of the time, according to the NBA’s official page. Aside from that stat, Game 4 is essentially a must-win for the Lakers, and Austin Reaves believes he knows how the team will respond.
Following the Lakers’ loss to the Timberwolves, Austin Reaves spoke about what the team’s mindset has to be coming into Game 4 in order to tie the series up at two games apiece.
“Play as hard as you possibly can and give yourself an opportunity to win and then go back to LA tied at 2-2,” Reaves said. “It’s basically a three-game series from there. So we’ll be ready, focused, and we’ll go compete as hard as we possibly can.”
The Lakers did not play particularly well throughout the game, at least not for their standards. But even so, the game was tied at 103 with a little more than four minutes to go in the fourth quarter after Luka Doncic hit a floater over Rudy Gobert.
From that point on, however, it was all Wolves. After Doncic had tied it up, the Wolves came out of a timeout and got an Anthony Edwards three-point shot. That was followed by Edwards finding Naz Reid for another three-pointer from the Wolves. The Lakers never really challenged after that.
From Reaves’ point of view, the major difference in the game was the Wolves being able to generate extra possessions with forcing turnovers and crashing the glass.
“They won the possession battle, 19 turnovers to 28 points, offensive rebounds,” Reaves said. “It’s hard to win anytime you give up double-digit more opportunities to score. So we’ve got to clean that up.”
The Lakers are heading into Game 4 with a relatively quick turnaround. Friday’s Game 3 was a late evening game, and then with one day off in between, Sunday’s Game 4 is an afternoon game. But regardless of the time and the situation, Reaves believes the overall mood in the Lakers’ locker room is positive.
“The mood is good,” Reaves said. “We see spots where we have to be better to win games, and we’ll have to fix that on Sunday.”
