Kendrick Perkins Torches JJ Redick After T-Wolves Pants Lakers In Five

JJ Redick’s first playoff experience as Lakers head coach didn’t go very well, and Los Angeles is now off to summer vacation because of it.

The Minnesota Timberwolves sent the Lakers packing with a 103-96 win in Los Angeles on Wednesday night to complete a comfortable 4-1 series victory.

T-Wolves big man Rudy Gobert had the game of a lifetime in the clincher, setting new career highs in points (27) and rebounds (24). His frontcourt partner, Julius Randle, had himself a night as well, scoring 23 points.

Even as the duo of bigs torched the Lakers, Redick stuck with his small-ball lineup. The Lakers didn’t play a center Wednesday night. That role was largely filled by 40-year-old LeBron James, who logged 40 minutes, as the Lakers essentially went with a seven-man rotation. Jaxson Hayes, the 7-foot center who averaged 19 minutes per game in the regular season, never checked in and played just 30 minutes the entire series.

Former NBA big man Kendrick Perkins, never afraid to share his own opinion, ripped into Redick after the game for refusing to abandon his small-ball game plan.

“Hey, I’m JJ Redick. I know basketball better than anybody in the world. I’m going to stick with this small-ball lineup, no matter how big the Minnesota Timberwolves are, I’m going to do things my way because I only care about offense,” Perkins said, taunting Redick during an appearance on “SportsCenter” late Wednesday night, as shared Thursday by Awful Announcing.

“It was ridiculous,” Perkins continued. “I never want to do this and blame this on one individual, but I have to blame this series on JJ Redick. When it comes down to the postseason, as a coach, you have to make adjustments. When you see things aren’t going as planned — the 2-3 zone, trapping Anthony Edwards is not working because he’s growing up right before our eyes and picking it apart.

“When you see you need a guy like Jaxson Hayes in the lineup, but you’re only thinking about about offense because that’s what you wanna do, and you lose the series in five games, then you have to take the blame for this because you didn’t make any adjustments whatsoever to adjust to this team and help your aging 40-year-old superstar out.”

In Redick’s defense, the Lakers — as James hinted at after the game — had a flawed roster. Then again, that’s largely because they traded big man Anthony Davis for guard Luka Doncic midway through the season. Still, Redick could have played Hayes at some point in the game, although according to Hayes, it doesn’t sound like that was ever in the cards for the Lakers.