LeBron James, Austin Reaves cite Lakers losing possession battle as reason for loss

After having a series-high 19 turnovers, the Lakers acknowledged that losing the possesion battle hurt them in their Game 3 loss against the Wolves.

There are plenty of reasons why the Lakers lost Game 3 against the Wolves on Friday, from Luka Dončić being sick to Jaden McDaniels going off and Los Angeles converting on just two field goals in the game’s final six minutes.

But it’s hard not to immediately point to the turnovers as the key factor in the loss. LA committed 16 of them, leading to 28 points for Minnesota. In a game that had little separation to it before a final onslaught from the Wolves, it hung over the purple and gold the whole night.

After the contest, then, there was plenty of discussion on the major self-inflicted wound from the Lakers in the loss.

“First of all, in the postseason, there is no room for error,” LeBron said. “In the regular season, you’re able to make up for certain things throughout the course of a regular season. You can have a little bit of room for error. When our team was constructed, at one point, in the regular season, we didn’t have much room for that as well.

“In the postseason, obviously, you’re not going to play a perfect game. But the more you make mistakes on top of mistakes on top of mistakes, things that can be controlled, then it’s not going to give you an opportunity to be in the best possible chance to win. They had 13 more [shots] than we did. Pretty much, that’ll be the game right then. We had 78 attempts. They had 91. That’s just with turnovers, live ball turnovers.”

There is a lot to chew on from these LeBron comments. The Lakers are obviously better now due to their trade for Luka and Dorian Finney-Smith, but this might be the first time he’s stated it so matter-of-factly.

LeBron’s also right about play being elevated during the postseason. It exposes uncomfortable truths about your team competing against the best in a head-to-head series. Talking heads have been so concerned about L.A.’s defense, but the offense has been the Achilles heel.

They’ve struggled to score and when they do have possession, they’ve given it up too often. That is not a recipe for success on the road. Even if LeBron flirts with a 40-ball.

“They won the possession battle,” Reaves said. “It’s hard to win any time you give up double-digit more opportunities to score. So, we’ve got to clean that up.”

It sounds simple, but sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one. If Minnesota has a lot more possessions and field goal attempts, that’s a tough thing to overcome.

The solution? L.A. needs to get stops, take care of the ball and get those offensive boards. Despite the disappointment of losing Game 3, this series is far from over and most of the games have been tightly contested.

Better offensive execution could even things up in Game 4 and bring the series back to L.A. for a pivotal Game 5.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.