How a shattered Lakers team built something unbreakable
They lost their two best scorers. They finished 53-29 anyway. The Lakers' stunning transformation from a top-heavy superteam to a collective force—and why it might be enough to shock Houston.
Los Angeles Lakers huddled before an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz on April 12th, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. LOS ANGELES––The NBA does not care about your missing pieces. Their lights hum regardless of whether you're healthy and whole or battered and bruised.
They burn cold and white, illuminating only what is present—not what is missing. And what stood before them on Sunday evening in the Los Angeles Lakers' 131-107 victory over the Utah Jazz, at crypto. com Arena was no longer a frayed rope, ready to snap, but a braided cord, three strands thick, refusing to break under tension.
The number zero carries a ton of tension: Zero Luka Dončić in warmups. Zero Austin Reaves on the bench. Zero timeline for either to return.
And yet the rope—the one JJ Redick keeps quoting from a Dermot Kennedy song—did not break. Because it was never a single rope. It was a cord.
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