Lakers’ roller-coaster season, filled with differing chapters, now on the brink

The Los Angeles Lakers sit teetering on the very precipice of playoff elimination, meaning that it’s basically now-or-never when it comes to writing about the curious tale of a roller-coaster season.

If form holds and LeBron James, Anthony Davis & Co. continue to be utterly outclassed by the Denver Nuggets, seven months of toil will be over as soon as Monday night, leaving conflicting memories and some head-scratching thoughts from a campaign with some wildly differing chapters.

James is saying the right things, as is head coach Darvin Ham, but this thing is essentially done, a 3-0 Denver lead built by the force of Nikola Jokic, the excellence of Jamal Murray and the exceptional coaching of Michael Malone, leaving no air for even the most fanatical purple-and-gold optimist.

“Just got to get one,” James told reporters Saturday. “One at a time. Focus on Game 4. That’s all you can really think about.”

Whether the final cut comes swiftly, or the Lakers can salvage some series pride, this season will go down as a curious tale of swings and strangeness.

Just over a week ago, Los Angeles was joint favorite to win the championship after seeing off the defending champion Golden State Warriors in an entertaining series that felt like old times, as James dueled with Steph Curry and Draymond Green, and Steve Kerr tried to figure out ways to stymie him.

Around six weeks before that, they were completely written off, stuck in 11th place in the Western Conference and sitting outside the play-in tournament.

Perhaps no other team in pro sports is as prone to fuel the whims of public overreaction as the Lakers. The NBA’s regular season is long enough for numerous story arcs to emerge, and emerge they did, twisting and shifting and overshadowing the efforts of a team that no one could quite figure out.

James’ search for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time points record was first seen as a historic boost, but by the time he actually broke it in early February, it had almost become an awkward distraction.

As is often the case with the Lakers, and with James, people want all the answers now, which is why the team was bad when starting the campaign at a disjointed clip of 2-10, but not as bad as the talk suggested.

And why their personnel problems were partly alleviated after Russell Westbrook was traded, but not solved as neatly as it first appeared. It is why they weren’t as horrible as it looked with a few weeks left in the regular season, and they weren’t as outstanding as we believed for a minute, ooh, about a week ago.

The Lakers did get it together on some level and have hope to move forward in the offseason, even if the Nuggets’ butt-kicking is summarily completed. You’d have liked the team’s chances against anyone else, but they simply can’t compete against Denver, with Davis unable to live with Jokic and the Lakers finding themselves slower, less accurate, and less well-oiled than an opponent that quietly compiled a 53-29 regular season record.

James showed what he can still do against the Warriors, all fire and ferocity, and for a fleeting moment, it felt like the postseason was breaking the Lakers’ way. The team was somehow becoming a widely likable underdog story, if the term “underdog” could ever truly apply to a team with James and Davis.

You could see it coming, James continuing to assert, role players like Austin Reeves and Rui Hachimura shining. However, Denver saw right through it.

Reality soon kicked in, and it is destined to be another empty year. James surely wants to add at least one more championship to his career résumé, but even with the recent positivity, there is a long way to go.

What it takes to thrive in this postseason, we are now seeing, is not just momentum and shooting prowess, but the ability to adapt to multiple styles and schemes.

That’s what a 1-seed in Denver has managed to do, along with the delightfully surprising (and eighth-seeded) Miami Heat in the East.

The result is a pair of 3-0 strolls, meaning that unless historical precedent is completely upturned, the Finals isn’t going to be the dream ticket of Lakers-Celtics.

Denver vs. Miami isn’t what many would have predicted, and it’s not what the television execs would have chosen. But it will be, all things considered, the right matchup, for no reason other than that James’ Lakers – and the Celtics – had nothing left to give when they needed it most.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX and subscribe to the daily newsletter.

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