From 2-10 to contenders: how the LA Lakers turned around a hellish season

A Lakers team given only a 0.3% chance of making the playoffs a few months ago has the look of a deadly serious contender in a wide-open Western Conference after toppling the Grizzlies

“Do you ever amaze – or surprise – yourself?” LeBron James was asked following the Lakers’ thrilling Game 4 overtime win in Los Angeles on Monday, which gave the team a commanding three-games-to-one lead in their first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies. “Yup,” James replied succinctly. Indeed, recording his first ever 20-point, 20-rebound game on one fully functioning foot, at age 38 (making him the oldest player to ever do so), and in the playoffs no less, was pretty amazing.

But seeing James and the rest of his Lakers cohort topple the odds can hardly continue to be considered a “surprise”. It’s what they’ve been doing all year long: clawing back from an abysmal 2-10 start to an above-.500 finish, and ending a tumultuous regular season – which many believed would have James’ breaking of the scoring record in February as its sole highlight – as the No 7 seed in the Western Conference.