JJ Redick has been desperate for bench help throughout the first-round series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves. His faith in his players outside of the five-man core of LeBron James, Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith has gotten so low that, in the second half of Game 4, he elected to use that lineup for all 24 minutes without a single substitution. He was the first head coach of the play-by-play era ever to do so in a playoff game, but it looks like there’s a chance he could get reinforcements in time for Game 5.
Maxi Kleber, the forgotten player in the Dončić trade, has not yet suited up for the Lakers. He has been out since his acquisition due to surgery on his right foot. However, the Lakers upgraded him to questionable on their injury report ahead of Game 5, meaning there is a chance that he could be available to play.
Now, availability does not guarantee that Redick will use him. However, it should be noted that Kleber was in a somewhat similar situation a year ago. He got hurt in the first round against the Clippers, missed the second round, and then played in the last two games of the Western Conference finals for Dallas against these same Timberwolves. In around 23 total minutes, the Mavericks outscored the Timberwolves by 10 points.
It would be hard to expect much more than a brief shift or two off of the bench for Kleber considering his health, but after the way Game 4 ended on Sunday, even getting that much would go a long way. While his mobility is surely compromised by that foot injury, having a big shooter who at least knows where to be defensively would be pretty useful by the standards the rest of the Laker bench has set in this series.
Is Kleber likely to swing the series? No. The odds are always against a team down 3-1, and potentially getting back one reserve who has never even played for you likely doesn’t change that. But the Lakers are so thin right now that the mere possibility of adding a bench player who could help seems meaningful.
