Lebron James and Luka Doncic run out of breath in the decisive phase. World champion Franz Wagner also threatens early.
What a break -in of the two superstars! Luka Doncic and LeBron James experienced one last quarter in the 113:11 defeat of the Los Angeles Lakers in game 4 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. With a 1: 3 from the point of view of the Lakers, you are already standing with your back to the wall in the best-of-Seven series.
Doncic got a total of 38 points in total, but in the last phase of the game he only met one of his six attempts to throw. It was even worse with James. The 40-year-old even remained completely without points in the fourth quarter! Significant: the last laker’s throw of the game, a threesome that would have meant the possible compensation, took Austin Reaves – and rejected.
Lebron and Doncic tired? Lakers coach historically
An explanation for the slump towards the end of the game could be in the sprawling season of the star duo. Coach JJ Redick left James and Doncic 46 (!) Minutes in the field.
Curious: The Laker’s coach did not even change throughout the second half, leaving his Starting Five unchanged for 24 minutes. According to Stats-Guru Keerthika Uthayakumar, this had never been done in the NBA in the playoffs.
“These are the playoffs – fatigue shouldn’t matter here,” Doncic didn’t want to know about excuses after the game. “I played for many minutes, but that shouldn’t matter. I think you just played better on the offensive in the last few minutes.”
“We had some really good chances,” added James. “I don’t think the fatigue had something to do with it. We just made a few misconceptions out of nowhere. We came into play that we wanted to come. We were just unable to implement it.”
Franz Wagner threatens that
Basketball world champion Franz Wagner is also facing the Orlando Magic. The national basketball player and his team lost four of the round of 16 of the round of 16 against the defending champion 98:10 on Monday night.
This means that in the best-of-Seven series 1: 3 from the Magic perspective. Already on the night of Wednesday (2:30 a.m.) this could come from Boston in the TD Garden.
Wagner showed a good game and came to 24 points, six rebounds and seven assists. Only Paolo Banchero scored more often for Orlando (31). At record champion Boston, Jayson Tatum protruded with 37 points and 14 rebounds. Moritz Wagner is missing after his cruciate ligament rupture for the rest of the season, the Munich Tristan da Silva was not used.