2 weeks Ago By Oscar Maung-Haley
Magic Johnson believes Lakers head coach JJ Redick "didn't do a good job" during Los Angeles' 117-95 NBA Playoff defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves . The NBA Playoffs got underway this weekend following the Play-in games , with plenty of storylines emerging following the first slate of games on Saturday. The Indiana Pacers beat the Milwaukee Bucks , the Denver Nuggets survived in overtime against the Los Angeles Clippers , and the New York Knicks produced a fourth-quarter comeback to defeat the Detroit Pistons .
However, the final Saturday game saw the Lakers resoundingly beaten by the Timberwolves. While Lakers star Luka Doncic went off by scoring 37 points, Minnesota proved no match for Los Angeles. Trailing 28-21 heading into the second quarter, the Timberwolves went on a 73-50 run before the game reached Q4, putting it out of reach for Los Angeles.
And taking to social media following the game, Johnson explained that while he believes Redick, in his first year as the Lakers head coach, had a great regular season, he did not make enough adjustments during their playoff defeat to the Timberwolves. The Lakers franchise legend wrote on social media: "Coach JJ Redick did a great job all season but he didn’t do a good job for Game 1. The Lakers stood around on offense, played too much one-on-one basketball, and he didn’t make any necessary adjustments.
" Los Angeles return to action on Tuesday night for the second game of their series against Minnesota. And according to Redick, they will need to physically ready for the Timberwolves next week, something the Lakers head coach admitted they weren't ready for after the defeat. "They're a great opponent," Redick told reporters following the game.
They're one of the best teams in basketball. It's not to say our guys weren't ready to withstand a playoff level basketball game. "We were mentally ready, I thought our spirit was right.
I thought even when they made runs, our huddles were great. "Their communication was great. I'm not sure physically they were ready if that makes sense.
And really, when they [Minnesota] started playing with a lot of thrust and physicality, we just didn't respond immediately to that, and then that stretch from the start of the second through four to five minutes in the third, we lost that stretch by 34. So that's a blowout." **Want to watch more live sports? Peacock has your favorite sports, shows, and more all in one place.
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