LeBron James Opens Up About JJ Redick Playing Same 5 Players For Entire Second Half Of Lakers-Timberwolves Game 4

During Game 4 of the Los Angeles Lakers-Minnesota Timberwolves series, Lakers head coach JJ Redick played Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Dorian Finney-Smith and Rui Hachimura the entire second half. 

The Lakers lost Game 4 and the series to the Timberwolves in five games. 

“I left that game extremely tired and extremely like, ‘Ooh s–t,’ because it was a postseason game, not because I played the whole second half,” James said on the Mind the Game podcast with Steve Nash. “I was tired as hell because I gave my whole body, my mind, my soul to the game for 48 minutes. I was extremely tired.

“But it wasn’t because I played 24 straight minutes in the second half. No, we had an opportunity and we didn’t counter it.”

James, 40, suffered a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee in Game 5. He would have missed Game 7 had the Lakers won Game 5. 

The leading scorer in NBA history, James averaged 25.4 points, 9.0 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.8 blocks in the Lakers-Timberwolves series. 

A four-time MVP, James appeared in 70 games for the Lakers during the regular season. He averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.6 blocks.

James has a player option to return to the Lakers next season. The future Hall of Famer joined the purple and gold in the summer of 2018. 

The Lakers missed the postseason in 2019, won the title in 2020, lost in the first round of the 2021 postseason, missed the postseason in 2022, lost in the conference finals in 2023 and lost in the first round of the 2024 and 2025 playoffs. 

Arguably the greatest player of all time, James has played for the Cleveland Cavaliers (twice), Miami Heat and Lakers. He has career averages of 27.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.7 blocks.