Lakers vs. Wolves Game 4 Preview and Game Thread: Can L.A. regain control?

The Lakers look to tie the series in Sunday’s matinee Game 4 playdate against the Wolves.

After letting Game 3 slip away from them, the Lakers look to bounce back in Game 4, which will take place on Sunday afternoon in Minnesota.

The purple and gold have another shot to tie the series as well as regain homecourt advantage.

Start time and TV schedule

Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves

When: 12:30 PDT, Apr 27

Where: Target Center

Watch: ABC

The Lakers’ loss in Game 3 was a result of any number of things: Luka Dončić dealing with a stomach flu, the team’s lack of rim protection, not taking care of the basketball and possession battle, putrid clutch performance, Minnesota’s late game lineup adjustment or as simple as the Lakers just not being able to knock down shots when they needed to.

It was a loss that slipped away from them and, as a result, has now added more pressure for them to regain control of the series on Sunday. I won’t go as far as saying that Game 4 is their last chance to save their season but they might as well go into it with that kind of mentality because the last thing they want is to play each match moving with a win-or-go-home mentality.

In Friday’s loss, L.A. gave up a mind-blowing 56 points in the paint. Head coach JJ Redick said that a lot of that had to do with the fact that they didn’t have rim protection, which tracks because Jaxson Hayes has proven that he can’t stay on the floor as each minute he plays passes.

This is something Redick has to address and it’ll be interesting to see how he does so in Game 4. Will he continue to play Hayes? Or will the rookie head coach finally make a starting lineup change by fully embracing his small ball unit from start to finish?

If he goes with the latter, the Lakers will have to figure out their rim protection as well as getting blown by on the perimeter, which happened way too much in Game 3.

They also have to help themselves by controlling the controllable as what LeBron James emphasized in his postgame interview after putting together his best performance of the series with 38 points on 5-9 shooting from range.

The theme of this series thus far has been the fact that whenever Minnesota wins the transition battle — which they did again in Game 3 — they end up winning the game. Turnovers and second chance points given up can’t keep being the reason why the Lakers continue to be down in this series moving forward.

Then there’s also the fact that the Wolves’ role players have outplayed the Lakers’ supporting cast for the most part of this series so far. In a game where Dončić wasn’t feeling his best and was apparently vomiting before and after tipoff, James can’t be the only player that scores more than 21 points — especially not when the rotation is down to just six players playing heavy minutes. L.A. has yet to find an answer for Jaden McDaniels and even Julius Randle who all need to see a tighter defensive coverages.

Akin to Game 2, Sunday’s matinee playdate will be about how the Lakers respond. This is the part of the series where Redick will have to go deep in his bag because it feels like now or never before their season slips away from them. Whether that’s Dončić regaining his feet, the defense stepping up or getting more out of everyone, Los Angeles needs to everything they can to win this one.

Let’s see if this is the game that turns the series around for the purple and gold or one that will bring them closer to danger time.

Notes and Updates

• For the Lakers’ injury report, only Maxi Kleber (right foot recovery) is listed.
• The Wolves will not have Rob Dillingham (right ankle sprain) active.
• We will be live on Playback for this game, so be sure to join us!

You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.