JJ Redick just made the type of history no NBA coach wants to make

JJ Redick entered a club of his own in the Lakers’ Game 4 loss to the Timberwolves.

With the Lakers trailing 2-1 in their series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and facing a (probably insurmountable) 3-1 deficit in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, head coach JJ Redick made a decision: He was either going to sink or swim with the guys who got him to this point.

That’s really the only justification for why Redick played starters LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura the entire final 24 minutes of game time, while also benching nominal starting center Jaxson Hayes for Dorian Finney-Smith (who also played the entire second half).

If that seemed like a bold — and possibly unprecedented — decision to anyone watching the game, it turns out that’s because it was. As NBA stats guru Keerthika Uthayakumar pointed out after the Lakers’ 116-113 Game 4 loss, Redick is the first coach to ever do this in the playoffs since the NBA started play-by-play tracking:

The Lakers’ box score is pretty wild as a result, with Luka (coming off a stomach flu that saw him in bed the entire previous day!) and LeBron finishing with 46 minutes apiece, while Hachimura and Finney-Smith played 41 each, and Reaves ended the game with 35. Hayes, who is bad at basketball but nevertheless tall enough to remain the Lakers’ ostensible starting center, finished with one four-minute shift, and no Laker outside of the second-half starters played more than 13 minutes.

With coaching strategic decisions, the rules for our collective memories are simple: If you do something that’s never been done before and win, you’re a pioneering genius. If you do it and lose, however, you won’t be second-guessed for eternity... but that’s just because we’ve already decided you’re an idiot who should have stolen a few more minutes for Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt or even Hayes so that the Lakers’ main guys didn’t short rim seemingly every shot they took in the final five minutes of game time.

That last bit is hyperbolic, as Redick is obviously a smart guy who has mostly done well with a wonky roster after the seismic and unexpected trade for Luka Doncic. But it’s also safe to say he probably didn’t, as a rookie coach, want to go down as the first bench leader to ever try this in a game his team lost by one basket to fall down 3-1 in the series instead of tied at 2-2.

It’s also, as he told reporters after the game, not something he planned going into the game, but a call he made at halftime and confirmed to said players going into the fourth quarter:

Ultimately, their effort was in vain, though, as was Redick’s bold strategic call, meaning that it’s probably unlikely another coach will try it again anytime soo-... oh, wait, Tom Thibodeau is definitely trying this next game now that he knows it’s both physically possible and legal, huh?

Well, in that case, maybe Redick can console himself with the knowledge that at least he may not be alone in this club for long.