At the end of Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick’s pregame press conference before Game 5 on April 30, he was asked by a reporter if he leans on an assistant coach or has someone who can help him make rotation decisions given that five players played the entire second half in the Lakers’ Game 4 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“Are you saying I’m inexperienced, and that was an inexperienced decision that I made,” Redick replied. “Do you think I don’t talk to my assistants about substitutions every single timeout?’
The reporter replied: “No, I just think there’s a lot of coaches who lean on their assistants in those situations.”
“As do I,” Redick said. “Every single time. That’s a weird assumption.”
Redick then sat the mic on the table and ended the press conference.
Redick played LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith the entire second half in Game 4, the first time in playoff history that has happened.
“He’s been getting criticized the last 48 hours for playing those guys, and he’s just sensitive,” TNT NBA analyst Charles Barkley said. “Everybody’s afraid to say, ‘I was wrong.’ All he had to do was say, ‘Hey, you know what, I shouldn’t have played those guys the whole second half.’ That’s it, and then it would’ve been over.”
The Lakers entered the game trailing the Timberwolves 3-1 in their first-round Western Conference playoff series.