de de litle de de, Game Over…

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

No one believes the Lakers are going to win the championship.

And no one believes Luka Doncic is the MVP.

The Lakers’ nine-game winning streak? All that proved is the Lakers will likely get past the first round of the playoffs.

Doncic’s unreal March in which he scored the second-most points in NBA history behind Michael Jordan? As he recently pointed out with disgust, he actually fell in the MVP race during that stretch.

But both the Lakers and Doncic have a chance to change people’s minds. It’s coming over the next seven days in the form of two games against the Thunder.

If the Lakers beat the reigning NBA champions, their stock will skyrocket. And if Doncic outshines the reigning MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, he could win the MVP Award.

The Lakers are coming off a commanding win over the Cavaliers on Tuesday in which they led by as much as 27 points. They’ve won 16 of their last 18 games, including beating multiple contenders in the Rockets (twice), Nuggets, Knicks and Timberwolves.

But they haven’t convinced anyone they’re the real deal.

Yeah, they’re good. But not good enough to get past the Thunder and Spurs.

It’s a fair assumption considering the last time they played the Thunder and their swarming defense in January, they looked like they had barely survived a war.

Seriously, Austin Reaves was slumped in his chair, too exhausted to sit upright. And LeBron James’ voice was hoarse. (Doncic missed that game, to be fair, but it was still brutal.)

But the thing is the Lakers are a completely different team now.

Doncic, Reaves and James went from being a liability on the court into one of the best trios in the league. The role players are starring in their duties. Things turned around for the Lakers beginning in late February.

What changed?

“I think it was a confluence of things starting with health,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said, pointing to the fact that the Big 3 had only played 11 games together before the All-Star break. “I think it’s much easier when you have a consistent stretch of health to — not even buy in — but settle into roles and minutes and rotations. We never found that throughout the season. Another big part of that was…guys really just embracing things.”

After James missed a three-game stretch at the top of March against the Pacers, Knicks and Timberwolves in which the Lakers were thriving behind Doncic and Reaves, he agreed to be the team’s third option. Reaves has learned to be aggressive while sharing the court with James and Doncic. And Doncic has been playing out of his mind.

But still, no one really believes in the Lakers.

Not yet.

Same with Doncic.

Both Doncic and his fans have been outraged that the bar for the MVP Award seems to change whenever his name is involved. So what he’s an offensive savant who’s leading the league in scoring (33.8 points) is third in assists (8.3) and sixth in steals (1.7)? He’s mediocre on the defensive end.

Sure, that didn’t seem to matter when guys like James Harden or Steph Curry won the award. But in this MVP race, with two-way stars Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama, the goalpost has shifted.

That’s being held against Doncic, who scored 40-plus points for the third straight game on Tuesday and has had a month in which he had 60-point and 51-point performances while helping his team climb to third in the Western Conference standings.

Wembanyama recently stated his case for why he should win the award. Gilgeous-Alexander declined to do so, saying, “I let my game do the talking,”

When Doncic was asked Tuesday if he wanted to advocate for himself, he seemed resigned to the fact that it would be an act of futility. He literally scoffed when the reporter mentioned he was “getting a lot of MVP momentum.”

“I mean, I never did that,” Doncic said. “I’m not the one voting, so, you know, but I think I’ve been playing pretty good. We’ve been winning. So that’s it. That’s all I gotta say.”

Well, Doncic, here’s your chance to change voters’ minds.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

It takes nearly a quarter-mile walk from the curb to the bus inside Terminal 4 at Los Angeles International Airport — a walk that includes a trip up two flights of stairs, down two escalators, through the mosaic-walled hallway that Pam Grier strutted through in “Jackie Brown,” and back up again. Then, it’s a 10-minute shuttle ride alongside the runway, weaving past planes and service vehicles, before arriving at the remote American Airlines terminal for one of the only direct flights.

That’s how you get to Oklahoma City from Los Angeles. The Lakers? That’s a different story. They were good, then bad. They were faux-contenders, and they now have a real chance to play deep into the playoffs.

The Lakers arrive in Oklahoma as the league’s hottest team — save for the one they are playing Thursday night. They bring the NBA’s best player — save for the reigning MVP who is still the heavy-betting favorite. They arrive with a clear winning style of play — only to test it against a Thunder team that Lakers coach JJ Redick says has been honing it for five years.

To a casual observer, the Lakers might look like they’ve been good for five weeks. But Thursday’s game against the NBA’s defending champions and current best team in the league is a tremendous opportunity for the Lakers to test their emerging beliefs that they might just have a championship team on their hands as well.

It really shouldn’t be surprising — the Lakers opened the season with three goals explicitly written out: championship habits, championship communication and championship shape.

After they dominated the Cleveland Cavaliers in a 127-113 win on Tuesday that wasn’t as close as the score would suggest, veteran Maxi Kleber was one of the last players in the Lakers’ home locker room after a postgame workout. He didn’t play against Cleveland, but he’s watched as the Lakers won 15 of 17 games, and a group return to the form it was at during its 15-4 start.

“We kind of established this from the start, you know?” he told The Athletic.

While the Lakers’ “championship” recipe could’ve easily been dismissed as the kind of coach-speak that lives on T-shirts and locker room walls, the messaging seeped into Kleber and Lakers’ psyche.

“A lot of times, like, when you see it, obviously, you can look at it and say ‘It’s bulls—,’ Kleber said. “But at the end of the day, it still is a daily reminder. You know, you look at the board, you see it … sometimes, maybe it gets overemphasized and you make a joke about it. But it’s relevant in your head. I think that’s important.”

Right now, it’s a Lakers team that’s playing well and playing for one another.

After Jake LaRavia threw down a one-handed dunk over Jarrett Allen, Deandre Ayton greeted him on the bench with a bear hug. When Luka Dončić scored his 600th point of March on a two-handed dunk of all ways, the LeBron James and the Lakers’ bench erupted. Dončić celebrated with two hands hoisted into the air and a gigantic smile.

“There are a million different forms of leadership, and every guy has their own responsibility to lead in whatever way they can. And, whether it’s Smart defensively, LeBron making hustle plays, Jake with his physicality. That’s leadership,” Redick said. “… Our team right now is the reason that we’re winning. Our team – because each guy has contributed to winning.”

Redick, when asked about the things that have changed about his team, proceeded to list every player that’s been in the regular rotation. Yes, the Lakers got healthy. Yes, the Lakers established clear hierarchy and roles. And yes, the Lakers are getting MVP performances from their best player.

But not one thing is the reason why the Lakers have hit this level. It’s been all of them.

“I think it was a confluence of things,” Redick said.

If there’s a team equipped to puncture the Lakers’ confidence, though, it’s the Thunder. In March, the Lakers went 15-2. The Thunder went 14-1.

“Very exciting,” Austin Reaves said of the meeting. “Obviously, they’re defending champs. Playing at a high level, obviously, one of the best teams in the league, if not the best team. And we have an opportunity to go into OKC and battle them.”

Dončić closed the month with 37.5 points per game on 49.2 percent shooting from the field with 8.0 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 2.3 steals. Reaves led the league with minutes over the month, a testament to his toughness as he deals with a handful of minor injuries. And James has become an efficiency machine, hitting 56.2 percent of his shots to go with 6.9 rebounds and 7.0 assists.

“We just figure out how to play together,” Dončić said. “I think our ceiling is still higher than what we’re doing now, but I think we all know basketball, a lot of basketball, so it’s just very natural.”

In some ways, it feels like the Lakers have reached their destination — a team that’s playing selfless, that’s reveling in each other’s successes and covering for their failures. But early April isn’t June. And the Thunder have already shown what it takes to get there.

For now, the Lakers are content enough knowing that they’re merely on their way.