MINNEAPOLIS — After a midseason loss to the Clippers, JJ Redick and LeBron James sounded a bit of an alarm, both coach and leader saying the Lakers didn’t have the luxury to just be pretty good.
The Lakers, if they wanted to win tough games, needed to be great.
“It’s just, we don’t have a huge margin for error,” Redick said.
“That’s how our team is constructed,” James said. “We don’t have room for error.”
But in a single phone call, when the Dallas Mavericks agreed to a blockbuster trade, the Lakers got the ultimate margin mover in Luka Doncic.
Friday night in Minneapolis, that cushion came crashing in, Doncic far from himself because of an illness that had him working out on the court an hour before the game.
With Doncic off, the mistakes took on more weight. The free throws that rattled out? Bruising. The offensive rebounds given up? Crushing. The lapses in attention that led to turnovers? Back-breaking.
The Lakers weren’t good enough, losing 116-104 to the Timberwolves in a Game 3 they had chances to win before Minnesota slammed the door to take a 2-1 first-round playoff series lead.
Doncic, a monster in the first quarter of the first two games of the series, looked badly uncomfortable, starting one for six from the field.
After he checked out for the first time, he put on his warmup jacket and pulled the hood onto his head. He wasn’t able to make it out of the locker room at halftime and missed the first 50 seconds of the third quarter, checking back in with a shirt under his uniform.
He scored 17 points on six-for-16 shooting but never could create the kinds of advantages that have given the Lakers room to maneuver.
James, though, was sublime. Still stimulated by the chance to silence a road playoff crowd, he played with his most energy all series. He pointed over at the bench after he scored on a midrange jumper when the Lakers executed a play called for him early. He held his three-point celebration in the fourth quarter when he shot the Lakers back into the game. He flew for rebounds and moved his feet on defense in a 38-point, 41-minute game. It was the most points scored in a playoff game by a player over 40.
Austin Reaves, who struggled shooting in Game 2, hit big shots, keeping the Lakers in it despite the mistakes rapidly mounting and making things tougher.
The most fatal wounds were caused by 19 Lakers turnovers leading to 28 Minnesota points. They ranged from multiple 24-second violations to lost rebounds to a ball squirting through James’ hands. One even came when Minnesota Rudy Gobert, Doncic’s favorite target, poked the ball loose leading to a Jaden McDaniels layup.
Twenty-four of McDaniels’ 30 points came in the paint.
While the mistakes the Lakers made were brutal, the things they couldn’t control hurt too. Their lack of rim protection got badly exploited by McDaniels, who consistently went over their defense.
The combination of the shrunken margins put the Lakers’ season a step closer to conclusion, the team now needing to steal a win Sunday in the shortest turnaround in the series.
Despite being sick, Doncic still played 40 minutes. Reaves played 41. They’ll need to recapture their energy from Game 2 on light rest to avoid facing elimination in Game 5.