The Los Angeles Lakers fell down 3-1 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in their first-round series following a 116-113 loss in Game 4. The Lakers now have their backs against the wall, but Dorian Finney-Smith stated postgame that he still believes they can overturn this deficit because LeBron James has done it.
“Well, I’ve seen Bron do it already,” Finney-Smith said. “We still feel like we can win this series. Just got to win one game at a time. Obviously, we put ourselves in harm’s way, but we gotta figure it out as a team.”
There have only been 13 instances in NBA history where a team has managed to overturn a 3-1 deficit in the playoffs. The last team to do it was the 2019-20 Denver Nuggets, who did it twice in the 2020 playoffs.
Four years before the Nuggets did that, James orchestrated the greatest comeback in NBA history. His Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a 3-1 deficit to the 73-9 Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals.
The problem for Finney-Smith and the Lakers is that that was nine years ago. While James is still playing at a very high level, he isn’t the same player today as he was in 2016.
James had averaged 36.3 points, 11.7 rebounds, 9.7 assists, 3.0 steals, and 3.0 blocks per game while shooting 50.6% from the field and 42.1% from beyond the arc over the last three games of that series. The chances of the 40-year-old putting up comparable numbers against the Timberwolves are slim.
Still, the fact that the Lakers have James and Luka Doncic means you’d give them a puncher’s chance. The two stars will need the supporting cast to step up, too, though.
Finney-Smith has averaged 6.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 0.5 blocks per game against the Timberwolves. The 31-year-old has shot 37.5% from the field and beyond the arc.
Finney-Smith hasn’t had a bad series, but he hasn’t had a great one either. He has had limited opportunities on offense, but hasn’t always had the kind of defensive impact he had during the regular season. He’ll need to be at his absolute best on both ends if the Lakers are to turn things around.
History is certainly against the Lakers, who themselves have only come back from down 3-1 once. That was all the way back in 1970 against the Phoenix Suns in what was then the Western Division Semifinals. The Lakers players aren’t going to throw in the towel, though, and Doncic also made it clear they still believe they can win the series.
“It’s definitely disappointing, but we haven’t lost nothing yet,” Doncic said. “It’s first to four wins. We just got to still believe.”
A factor that is working in the Lakers’ favor is that Games 5 and 7 are at home. They only have to win one game in Minnesota to complete the comeback, but that’s easier said than done.
They first need to take care of business at home, and Game 5 will be at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday at 10 PM ET.
