It’s been two weeks since the Lakers played in front of their home crowd but when fans arrive for Game 3, Round 1 on Thursday they’ll be met with gold t-shirts draped over their seats. Across the Playoff tees, an array of eclectic fonts forms the phrase: The Pursuit Takes Everybody.
While a Lakers playoff run has been in question for months, the team never let uncertainty deter them. They stayed focused on what they could control, they stayed focused on themselves. The result was feeling empowered to “play free,” a phrase the players coined. It illustrates their ability to block out the noise and extract the shreds of joy wedged between the pressure and expectations surrounding the sport they’ve always loved.
“I think we’ve come together as a group,” Austin Reaves said in his walk-off interview after he and the Lakers took down the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 10th. “Throughout the whole year, we’ve had guys in and out of the lineup, but at some point, things just started clicking. We’re not really doing anything different. We’re just making more shots, playing with the extra pass, and really just enjoy playing the game together.”
Two months earlier, the team was in the thick of uncertainty as they faced the Dallas Mavericks in the middle of January. But that night, the streamers had fallen from high above the rafters at Crypto.com Arena. They laid, sprung across rows of seats and hardwood, as D’Angelo Russell left the court. Fans stretched out their arms over the stanchion side panels as he walked past them to the players’ tunnel. “DLo!,” they shouted. Before entering the tunnel that cast a purple and gold light on his face, he reached both hands above his head to high-five more fans shouting his name.
That night Russell led his team offensively and rivaled Luka Dončiċ’s 33 points with 29 of his own. His teammates matched that energy and together they produced a 127-110 victory.
As fans still cheered behind him, D’Angelo turned the corner to the locker room and looked up at the camera in front of him to declare, “Huge, huge, tough win for us. It took everybody.”
It was a straightforward point, a simple observation. D’Angelo didn’t foresee what his one-off synopsis would become. Nobody did.
Now, three months later it’s game 82 and the Lakers defeated the Pelicans handedly in New Orleans. Because of the way the West shook out, the team remained in NOLA to face the Pelicans again in the Play-In Tournament. This game wasn’t won as easily. Future Hall of Famers, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, shot 12-for-36.
“We’ve been playing good ball,” James said. “And everybody’s been contributing. Hasn’t been many games where me and AD shot the ball like that, I think we were 12-for-36 from the field. But the rest of the guys picked us up so me and AD were just trying to do everything else that we could.”
Austin Reaves confirmed LeBron’s point, “He looked at me and said, ‘I don’t remember the last time I shot 6-for-20’ and basically praised the team for pulling out this win,” Reaves said.
LeBron called their playoff berth, “An all-around team win.”
The next day marked the start of an entirely new season, 0-0. But the remedy for battle remained the same —success Takes Everybody.
Takes Everybody is when a squad, without their superstars, takes down the most dominant team in the East, 114-105 in Boston. It’s who you hear rivaling the “home crowd” during an “away game” to wield a 21-point comeback in the fourth quarter. It’s how a team, now 12 games over .500, battled through the merciless Western Conference to secure seventh place and a playoff push.
Takes Everybody is not this Kumbaya, hand-in-hand, campfire singalong togetherness. It’s how you show up amid doubt when your backs are against the wall. It’s an aggressive togetherness, a responsibility that fosters accountability—because if you don’t show up for your part in all of this, the center falls out.
Takes Everybody isn’t about when everything’s working in your favor, it’s when things are not. Takes Everybody is how you respond after watching your opponent’s game-winning shot fall at the buzzer. It’s coming home 0-2 in Round 1 to a team that you have yet to puncture—coming home to a sold-out arena who still believes. You’ll be able to hear the proof.
“We already know what we’re going to get from our home fans,” LeBron said ahead of Game 3. “Felt like it’s been forever since we’ve played here to be honest. ...Yes, that’s how long it feels, so hopefully they’re excited because we’re looking forward to it.”
This is the first time in two weeks, the first time all playoffs, that everybody will be together, 18,997 people packing the arena, ready to be heard; ready to respond.
