EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsTHE LOS ANGELES LAKERS' late-season surge didn't just lift the team's position in the standings. It transformed their hierarchy and buoyed their belief.For more than a month -- 33 days, to be precise -- from the end of February until the beginning of April, the Lakers were one of the hottest teams in basketball, seemingly building momentum for a long postseason run.The injuries that had plagued the roster from the start of training camp had resolved. The roles for the Lakers' three stars in Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves had found harmony. And the results had been dominant.From Feb. 28 to April 1, the Lakers went 16-2. Their offense, which had ranked No. 11 through their first 58 games of the season, jumped up to No. 4. Their defense, which had ranked 24th, was a suddenly reliable ninth.Even though the Lakers were 10 games above .500 before the streak began, there were legitimate criticisms of how sustainable their performance had been up to that point -- and their improved play quelled even those concerns.Suddenly the team that couldn't shoot went from No. 19 to No. 8 in 3-point percentage. The team that didn't have the requisite athletes to get back in transition went from No. 13 in opponent's fast-break points to No. 8. And the team that always lost to good teams counted the New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, Cleveland Cavaliers and the Houston Rockets (twice) among their conquests.After a 127-113 win over Cleveland on March 31, during which the Lakers outscored the Cavs 78-49 in the second and third quarters to avenge a 30-point loss from earlier in the season, Doncic was asked about the season's turnaround."The run we've been on," Doncic said, "it means a lot. We got to just keep playing."Then, 48 hours later, everything changed.A TORNADO WATCH and storm that flashed lightning bolts across the sky and poured more than an inch of rain on Oklahoma City foreshadowed the Lakers' game against the Thunder on April 2.It was the first time L.A. had faced the defending champion since Nov. 12, when the Thunder romped 121-92.In that game, the Lakers were missing James, who was out because of a sciatica injury that kept him out the first month of the season, and the Thunder was without Jalen Williams, who was recovering from offseason wrist surgery.Five months later, this game was supposed to be different, with both teams at full strength and the Thunder just as hot as L.A., having won 15 of their past 16 games.It was supposed to be a chance for the Lakers to validate their ascent, and to spotlight the individual showdown between Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, with MVP votes potentially on the line.Instead, what was supposed to be a spectacle between two of the NBA's best teams quickly devolved into something else: a slaughter.The Thunder went up 18-4 in the first few minutes and led 82-51 by halftime. Reaves tweaked his left side going up for a long rebound in the first quarter but stayed in the game.The second half was even worse for the Lakers, with Doncic leaving the game midway through the third quarter after clutching his left hamstring and collapsing to the court in pain.After the game, the Lakers were already preparing mentally to be without Doncic for a period of time, sources told ESPN. His left hamstring had previously sidelined him for four games leading into the All-Star break, and it's the type of injury with a high risk of reoccurrence.An MRI was scheduled for the next day in Dallas. It revealed a Grade 2 strain.It was a blow, to be sure, but not a knockout.The Lakers were still No. 3 in the West with five regular-season games remaining -- and two of those opponents, the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz, were focused on their draft lottery odds, not necessarily on winning.Reaves' left side was still bothering him, so the team also scheduled an MRI for him. Initially, they thought he might sit out only a game or two and be back before the regular season was over, team sources told ESPN.In the meantime, there was disappointment within the team that Marcus Smart was unable to return from a right ankle injury to help with the ballhandling responsibilities, team sources told ESPN.When the Lakers met for practice at Southern Methodist University the day before the Mavs game, the team acknowledged that the pathway for a lengthy postseason run had narrowed. Still, there was internal belief that it was navigable.Redick said he would increase the offensive touches for center Deandre Ayton and forward Rui Hachimura -- music to their ears after pining for shots all season.Redick met with Luke Kennard, acquired for his shooting in a trade with the Atlanta Hawks at the deadline, about the need for him to play on-ball in the interim."We walked through some stuff and I was in some different positions," Kennard told ESPN. "They were preparing me for what was about to happen."James, for his part, was unfazed by what it would mean for him personally, sources close to him said, because even if he had willingly filled in as the third option behind Doncic and Reaves during L.A.'s winning streak, he never felt as if he needed to do so because of any drop-off in his game. It was just what the team needed at that time."Our job, the rest of these guys and my staff, we're going after the No. 3 seed and we're going to try to win a playoff series," Redick said after practice on April 4. "And we'll see what happens with Luka."A couple of hours later, after practice had ended, the team received the results of Reaves' second MRI after the first was inconclusive: he had sustained a Grade 2 oblique strain and would also be out for four to six weeks, sources told ESPN.Suddenly, that narrow path felt as if it were closing entirely."[After the Reaves news] it's almost like JJ was like, 'Do I need to readdress this again with the team now?'" one team source told ESPN.THE NEXT DAY, the news from the previous two showed itself on the American Airlines court.L.A. fell behind by as many as 22 points against the Mavs and lost 134-128, despite Dallas having lost eight of its past nine games.James was brilliant, scoring 30 points on 12-for-22 shooting, with 15 assists and nine rebounds. Hachimura had 13 field goal attempts, his most in months, and made nine of them. Kennard, while only shooting 5-for-17, had his first career triple-double with 15 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists.But the defensive fight the team had talked about at SMU, the attitude that had progressed so much over the course of the season, was dormant, multiple Lakers sources told ESPN. And Dallas, despite little incentive to do so, dominated, with no love lost between the franchises since the fallout from the Doncic trade.Two days later, the Lakers played the Thunder again, this time in Los Angeles. And again, it was ugly.Redick benched Hachimura a couple of minutes after tipoff and then called timeout to pull Jarred Vanderbilt just 16 seconds into the second quarter, leading to a heated exchange between the two, with Reaves and Lakers assistant coach Nate McMillan stepping in to keep it from escalating.L.A. trailed by seven at the time of the Vanderbilt spat; the Thunder pushed that lead above 40 in the second half. The loss dropped the Lakers to 0-2 since the injuries, and the Nuggets moved up to No. 3 in the West, putting L.A. in danger of losing home-court advantage in the first round if it kept falling, with a back-to-back set looming against Golden State and Phoenix.Before the game against the Warriors, the Lakers gathered for a team meeting in their hotel in San Francisco.Redick began with an admission -- that he'd overlooked the emotional toll of the game in Oklahoma City."It was important to just address the situation and talk through the situation," he said. "And [acknowledge] the belief level with our group during that six-week stretch. Now we've got to figure out how to get this group -- and that's players, coaches, that's all of us -- to believe at a high level again."Added a team source: "I think it was a bigger shock to the system than we acknowledged."James' demeanor during the team's preparation for the Warriors also was noted."Just leading the group in the walkthrough, taking it serious and trying to come out and get a win in Golden State, it just kind of reset a tone of like, 'Hey guys, I don't know what's going to happen, but let's be committed to each other," a source at the meeting told ESPN. "'Let's be committed to the process.'"Then they did.THE LAKERS BEAT the Warriors 119-103 on April 9. Then they spanked the Suns 101-73 the next night. And they closed out the regular season with a 131-107 win over Utah last Sunday.Their 3-0 final flourish earned them a 53-29 record -- three more wins than they had last season.James was named Western Conference Player of the Week, after averaging 24.0 points, 9.7 assists and 6.0 rebounds after Doncic and Reaves went down.And remarkably, from April 3-12, the Lakers actually improved in several areas from where they ranked during their hot streak. Their defense stiffened even more and their team 3-point percentage increased from 37.6% to 41.2%.The Lakers, at least for now, have stabilized.They will open their first-round series as the Western Conference's No. 4 seed, hosting the No. 5-seeded Houston Rockets in Game 1 on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).And as they prepare for it, sources told ESPN they have no expectation of having either Doncic or Reaves back at any point in the first round. But they also have not completely ruled out the possibility of one or both of them becoming available the longer the series lasts."We have been on hikes all season long, gotten lost in the woods and nobody thinks we're going to be rescued," Redick said. "And we find a path and we get back to the meadow and find civilization, and we're going to be OK. That's what our group is. I think we've all just embraced that, and we just have to find it now with this group."
