OKLAHOMA CITY —
Since the Lakers won the NBA’s in-season tournament two weeks ago, the team has floated, their pockets, like their legs, heavier from their $500,000 journey into playoff-style basketball in the first quarter of the season.
Yet following that tournament win, the Lakers have struggled. They’ve openly griped about being road weary, about a schedule that has kept them living out of suitcases since Thanksgiving, about back-to-back games and time-zone switches that have pushed the days together into unrecognizable blobs.
The Lakers needed a break. That wasn’t going to come.