Lakers unfurl 2020 championship banner, escape upset bid from Rockets

LOS ANGELES — “STAY TUNED, LAKERS FAMILY”.

It was a promise, gold type stitched into a solemn black flag that had hung for nearly five months – four of those months with hardly any eyes inside Staples Center to see them. So team owner Jeanie Buss beamed after all that time spent being patient and hopeful about a moment when the team, the staff and the fans could be in one building again.

“We’ve been awarded our trophy, the players have their rings,” Buss said from center court, standing next to the Larry O’Brien trophy. “Our final piece of business …”

Staples Center was about 15,000 short of the capacity crowd the Lakers wanted to have on Wednesday night, but the voices rose up as if it were a sellout.

Moments later, the black flag was slowly lowered to reveal the 2019-2020 championship banner, the last piece commemorating the 17th championship in franchise history – a season that will always be at least a little incomplete because so few were there to see it finish. Waiting until the last home game of the season, the last possible moment, the Lakers revealed the latest addition to the four neat rows of golden banners that hang on the wall of the arena reading “WORLD CHAMPIONS.”

“We said we would not unveil this banner until we had some of you guys in the seats,” Finals MVP LeBron James said. “So this is your guys’ moment. We had our ring night, we wanted you guys there but we wanted to make sure we saved the banner for y’all.”

These Lakers (40-30) are a long way from those Lakers: Neither James nor fellow All-Star Anthony Davis were able to suit up, instead helping to host the pregame ceremony in street clothes as in other corners of the league, Dallas and Portland won games that make the Lakers’ slide to the No. 7 seed – and the dreaded play-in tournament – a near-certainty.

But before the tip-off to a 124-122 Lakers win that is more likely to slide from memory than be incorporated into it, both players warmly thanked the fans who made their presence felt, not courtside, but from a distance for more than a year.

“Even when we went to the bubble, every night we’d come in, and see on the screen you guys cheering for us,” Davis said. “And that means a lot to us. And without you guys, we wouldn’t be able to raise this banner or have this trophy behind us.”

Those watching the celebration from home would have been wise to flip it off the minute it was over.

The game that unfolded between the short-handed Lakers and the inexperienced Rockets was a high-scoring eyesore that the Lakers finished with cringe-worthy mistakes that erased an eight-point lead with three minutes to go: a Talen Horton-Tucker turnover, a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope offensive foul, and a Montrezl Harrell foul that put Kelly Olynyk (coincidentally a member of the Miami Heat squad whom the Lakers beat in the Finals) at the line for a go-ahead free throw.

The Lakers were only saved by the grace of a driving layup by Kyle Kuzma (19 points) with 6.9 seconds left, then a steal out of Olynyk’s hands. Horton-Tucker (23 points) recovered the ball with one second left, allowing him to play the hero again a night removed from his game-winning shot against the Knicks.

The win just barely kept alive the hopes of a shot at the sixth seed, but now either Portland or Dallas has to lose out, and the Lakers must win their final games at Indiana and New Orleans. The Lakers finished with a 21-15 record at Staples Center this season.

It had been 213 days since the Lakers won Game 6 of the NBA Finals. In that span, the spoils of victory have been deferred: There has still been no championship parade, no White House visit, and perhaps more critically, no rest.

Meanwhile, the challenges of defending a title sped up, with the NBA playing a condensed 72-game schedule that the returning Lakers have largely criticized for beginning just two months after the last one (much of it spent in the confines of the Orlando bubble) ended – most vocally James himself.

But even though the Lakers are in the throes of uncertainty, with James’ 27th missed game of the season ticking past, the 36-year-old put forth the expectation that there will soon be more to celebrate.

“We love you guys and the road to back-to-back starts in about a week,” he said to the loudest applause of the evening. “So, let’s get going.”