The Los Angeles Lakers are officially back on track. After being upset in the series opener, the Lakers reversed course by battling back with a 94-85 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 2, evening the series before it heads to Minneapolis.
The hard-fought effort proved that Lakers head coach JJ Redick is the right man for the job. He had to make adjustments throughout the game to keep the Timberwolves from making a comeback, which included limiting underperforming veterans' minutes while giving more playing time to those who deserved it.
If the Lakers want to ride their newfound momentum into a 2-1 series lead, Redick must continue limiting a certain struggling vet's minutes in Game 3.
Lakers' Jaxson Hayes Must Continue Riding the Bench in Game 3
Few Lakers fans would be surprised if Jaxson Hayes continued playing in a limited role in Game 3.
The 24-year-old center struggled towards the end of the regular season, forcing Redick to diminish his playing time down the stretch. That trend has followed Hayes into the playoffs, where he only played eight and nine minutes in Games 1 and 2, respectively.
That's a pretty big far cry 21.8 minutes he averaged in the 30 regular-season games he played after Anthony Davis was traded to the Dallas Mavericks. Still, lowering his playing time was necessary after the Lakers went 3-5 in the last eight games which he played 15-plus minutes.
Although his Game 1 performance was unremarkable, Hayes was even worse with his limited playing time in Game 2. Despite only playing less than 10 minutes on Tuesday night, the former Texas Longhorn was called for a whopping five personal fouls. His undisciplined performance was tough to watch, especially when he was making basic mistakes like moving during screens.
It also didn't help that Hayes was dunked on by Anthony Edwards, who's eight inches shorter than the former.
Hayes' struggles make it clear that the Lakers should've done a better job of signing or trading for a legitimate center after Davis was shipped out of town. Having said that, there's nothing that L.A. can do about its frontcourt situation now aside from limiting Hayes' playing time, giving those opportunities to the likes of Dorian Finney-Smith instead.
Hopefully, Redick makes the right decision come Game 3 because Los Angeles needs all the help it can get to take the series lead. After all, FanDuel Sportsbook is currently listing the Lakers as the 3-point underdogs to the Timberwolves ahead of Friday's showdown.
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