Here’s what (and who) to blame for the Lakers’ early playoff exit

Hey everyone, this is Dan Woike and welcome to the Lakers newsletter, the one place on the internet where I can, proudly, share with you readers that Flava Flav and Shane McMahon witnessed the Lakers get eliminated from ownership’s seats near courtside. Are they to blame? Of course not.

But with the sting from the season ending so fresh, why not throw a stray into the second row. Everyone else is seemingly catching one.

So why do I think the Lakers lost? Well, thanks for asking.

The blame game

Let’s establish some things off the bat. Minnesota is good, and this season the Timberwolves were statistically better than the Lakers on both sides of the ball. Hindsight makes that seem obvious, but I think we (and I include myself) were a little too tantalized by what the Lakers were able to do in some big moments this season while ignoring some of the deficiencies they were able to mask with effort and intensity.

Cool, so that’s out of the way. So why did they lose? They needed to address these problems:

OFFENSE!

After Luka Doncic debuted for the Lakers in February, the team failed to score at least 105 points only three times (one of those games, LeBron James got hurt and another he didn’t play).

They cleared that bar just once in their abbreviated postseason, in Game 4 in Minnesota, and they needed 19 threes to get 113 points.

The Lakers struggled all season to hit shots against Minnesota and were extra bad in the playoffs, held below 100 points three times, all at home.

One of the big reasons the Lakers decided to play small in the series was to create more spacing and scoring, and the Lakers didn’t make enough shots or create enough consistent advantages to keep Minnesota in rotations.

It’s simplistic, but experiencing these games in person, it just looked a lot easier for Minnesota to score than it did for the Lakers. Credit the Timberwolves’ defense for a lot of it, but the Lakers were just too easily disconnected from one another on the offensive end.

Coaching and roster

These two are totally combined, with JJ Redick saying Friday that his philosophy as a coach is maxing out the capability of the talent on the roster in the style that best suits the players.

And it became super-duper obvious as the Lakers prepared for the playoffs that they thought they were best suited by playing small.

Playing small certainly affected their energy levels — players will tell you that it’s the most tiring way to play. And it became clear that the Lakers weren’t comfortable playing Jaxson Hayes in any meaningful way in this series.

Another capable big man would’ve helped the Lakers close out possessions, which would’ve helped them get out in transition more, which conceivably would’ve helped the offensive production.

Even if the Lakers didn’t want to play Hayes, they probably should’ve realized that they more or less had to. And in talking with other coaches around the league, that would’ve meant leaning in more than the quick shifts he was getting in the first and third quarters.

The Lakers’ roster was too dependent on specialists, leaving the team without the kind of versatility that Minnesota was able to use. You need two-way players in the playoffs. The Lakers didn’t have anywhere close to enough of them.

And yeah, 24 straight minutes is too much.

Stars

This one is easy: The Lakers’ best players weren’t good enough. Doncic was great offensively in Games 1 and 2, but James still was working through the hip injury he suffered at the end of the season. James worked himself into the series in Game 3, but Doncic was stricken with a virus. In Game 4 as James and Doncic recovered, Austin Reaves never got on track as he looked not physically there on the offensive end, particularly off the dribble. And in Game 5, Doncic injured his back, James knocked knees and Reaves struggled with his outside shot and ability to create separation off drives.

None of these are credible excuses. All three of the Lakers’ best offensive players were well enough to play. All three could’ve impacted the series in key moments the way Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle did. And all three didn’t, the Lakers badly losing the fourth-quarter moments those three were expected to control.

Scheduling update

Thanks so much to everyone for following along this season here, at latimes.com and on social media. It was a wild season. I’m going to take a few weeks off from the newsletter before checking back in periodically through the offseason and whenever news breaks.

Song of the week

“Hang With Me” by Robyn

Thanks for the hang. See you soon.

In case you missed it

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What will the Lakers roster look like following another first-round playoff exit?

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‘We just gotta still believe.’ Lakers focus on snapping fourth-quarter skids

LeBron and Lakers falter late in loss to Minnesota, moving to brink of elimination

Hernández: With their season in danger of ending, Lakers are running out of answers

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Hernández: Can the Lakers overcome their biggest vulnerability exposed during their Game 3 loss?

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