Ant zooms past 'gassed' Lakers to take 3-1 lead

MINNEAPOLIS -- With Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick keeping the same five players on the court for the entire second half of Game 4 on Sunday, Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards said he knew L.A. would be susceptible to his late-game attack.

"I felt like they were gassed going down the stretch," Edwards said after Minnesota erased a 10-point, fourth-quarter deficit to win 116-113 and go up 3-1 in its first-round Western Conference series. "So just trying to keep my foot on the pedal and keep going."

Edwards nearly matched the Lakers' fourth-quarter point total, scoring 16 of his game-high 43 points as Minnesota outscored L.A. 32-19. The Lakers shot just 5-for-18 in the fourth -- including 3-for-9 in the final five minutes -- but LeBron James said tired legs were not the cause of the misses.

"We got some really good looks," said James, who had another strong performance with 27 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks. "Luka [Doncic] missed a point-blank layup to put us up seven. I missed a point-blank layup to put us up four. We had a couple opportunities. I don't think fatigue had anything to do with that. Just missing some point-blank shots, you know? We were getting into what we wanted to get into. We just weren't able to convert."

Lakers reserve forward Dorian Finney-Smith was told a couple of minutes before the start of the third quarter by L.A. assistant coach Nate McMillan that he would be starting the second half in place of center Jaxson Hayes. Finney-Smith, James, Doncic, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura started the third on a 14-0 run to take control and outscored the Wolves 36-23 in the period.

Redick said it was "not a planned thing" to use only five players in the second half. No team since at least 1998 had used only five players in one half of a playoff game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

"I asked them at the beginning of the fourth quarter [how they were doing] and told them we had two extra timeouts," Redick said. "'If you need a sub, let us know.' Those guys gave a lot."

Finney-Smith, who finished with 6 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists in 41 minutes, agreed with the decision.

"It's the playoffs," he said. "I don't think nobody wanted to come out the game anyway."

Doncic bounced back from a stomach ailment in Game 3 to lead L.A. with 38 points in Game 4 but only seven in the fourth. James was scoreless in the fourth, missing both of his shots. Both of the Lakers' stars played 46 minutes.

"Fatigue shouldn't play any role in this," Doncic said. "I played a lot of minutes, but that shouldn't play a role. I think they just executed better on the offensive end during the last minutes."

Doncic, Redick and James thought the officiating hurt the Lakers in the final minute. Doncic needed to call timeout with 33 seconds left, with the Lakers trailing 114-113, after falling to the floor in the backcourt while being guarded by the Wolves' Jaden McDaniels.

"Luka got tripped," Redick said. "I mean, that was a blatant trip. He doesn't just fall on his own. We rewatched it. He gets tripped. So we should have been at the free throw line."

Said Doncic: "I think I got tripped, for sure."

After the timeout, James turned the ball over on a sideline inbounds pass to Doncic. There were 17 seconds on the shot clock at the time of the inbounds, so James tried to pass it to a player in the frontcourt rather than the backcourt and risk an eight-second violation with only one second of wiggle room for a receiving player to advance the ball past half court.

"We didn't execute it," Redick said.

James said he would have preferred a Lakers player try to get open in the backcourt if he recreated the sequence.

"If I could take it back [after] the timeout, maybe just have one guy break open to the backcourt," James said, "because we still had time."

James also took issue with the officials overturning an out-of-bounds call on Edwards with 10.7 seconds left and changing it to a foul on James after Wolves coach Chris Finch challenged the play.

"That play happens all the time," James said. "Hand is part of the ball, that's what they say. I feel like the hand was a part of that ball. I was able to get his hand on top of the ball. The ball stripped out and [went] out on him. I've seen that play over and over before, but it is what it is."

Edwards said he knew James fouled him and looked at Finch to use his challenge. "Great overturn by the refs," Edwards said.

Edwards made two free throws after the video review to put the Wolves up by three. Reaves missed a 3-pointer from the corner at the buzzer that would have tied the score and forced overtime. L.A. will look to stay alive when it hosts Minnesota in Wednesday's Game 5.

"We're going to get one," Hachimura said. "Yeah, we're going to get one."