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LOS ANGELES -- It was hard for Andrew Goudelock not to smile as he sat in front of his locker, even after the Los Angeles Lakers’ 120-89 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night.

He wasn’t smiling because he scored 20 points and was the leading scorer on the Lakers for much of the game.

He wasn’t smiling because the D-League MVP trophy he was given before the game was sitting right behind him, placed in a cardboard box that looked like it had just been shipped to him overnight.

And he wasn’t smiling because Metta World Peace was teasing him about being surrounded by dozens of reporters and cameras.

He was smiling because he was simply sitting in an NBA locker room again.

Not bad for a guy who went from making about $475,000 last season to borrowing money from his college girlfriend to pay his bills last month.

“I’m broke,” Goudelock said. “I’m cool. Nobody would know that I’m broke. I just come here with a smile on my face.”

It’s an unusual confession for an NBA player starting in the playoffs to make, but Goudelock wasn’t even in the league two weeks ago.

Goudelock, who was a second-round draft pick of the Lakers in 2011, was cut Oct. 27 prior to the season opener. He ended up being drafted by the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the D-League and later traded to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, where he averaged 21.4 points and won the D-League MVP, an award he didn’t even know existed before he won it.

Less than two weeks ago, the Lakers signed him for the final two games of the regular season and playoffs after Kobe Bryant ruptured his Achilles tendon.

“This business just keeps getting crazier,” Goudelock said. “I wouldn’t think I’d be here two weeks ago. Nothing happens the way it’s supposed to happen. This is a great opportunity, going from the D-League a week and a half ago to starting in the playoffs. It shows you the nature of the business.”

Business wasn’t so good for Goudelock after being cut by the Lakers. Despite playing well in front of dozens of fans in cities like Bakersfield, Calif.; Canton, Ohio; and Erie, Pa., Goudelock was living paycheck to paycheck after finishing up his rookie salary.

“I was so broke I had to borrow money,” he said. “I’ve had the same girlfriend since college, and I had to call her to give me money and she’s still in college, but I didn’t have any other choice. I didn’t want to call my parents. I’m too old for that. Some days I couldn’t even eat, and she sent me money. It’s definitely an experience I’m going to tell my kids about.”

Goudelock made about $1,200 every two weeks while he was in the D-League, and his per diem was $40. Before the Lakers left for San Antonio for a four-day trip, his per diem was slightly different.

“When I got my per diem, I was the happiest guy in the world. It was $500!” Goudelock said. “I took that! That’s like half my check in the D-League. … You go to the D-League, and you basically lose money. I used to tell people I might as well work at Burger King or do something else, but it all pays off.”

Goudelock didn’t want to bother his parents with monetary requests while he was struggling this season, but after he called to let them know he would be starting Friday, they surprised him at the game by getting on the first flight they could from Atlanta to Los Angeles.

“It took them a lot of money to come here, but I’m glad they’re here,” Goudelock said. “I’m glad they got to see me play.”

As Goudelock talked about his experiences on the road, on buses and sleeping on floors, he smiled again as he looked across the locker room at Darius Morris. He and Morris were both selected in the second round of the 2011 NBA draft by the Lakers, five picks apart, but didn’t want to have anything to do with each other when they both got to Los Angeles.

“We really didn’t like each other,” Goudelock said. “We would compete all the time, and we ended up being real good friends. We never thought this would happen.”

No one thought this would happen. Bryant’s injury might have brought Goudelock back to Los Angeles, but injuries to Steve Nash, Steve Blake and Jodie Meeks catapulted him and Morris into the starting lineup Friday. Goudelock had 20 points and three steals while Morris added 24 points and six assists.

“Every time we look at each other we say this is crazy,” Goudelock said. “When we first got here, I don’t even think we spoke to each other. It was a completion thing. In training camp, I said that’s the enemy, but as time went on, we were doing this together and we got really, really close.

"When I was in the D-League, he would text me and call me and ask me about certain situations. He had my back just like I had his. I’m just glad that we get this opportunity to go out and play together.”

This was certainly not the way Goudelock and Morris wanted to get their moment in the playoff spotlight. They began the season as third stringers in a backcourt behind Bryant, Nash, Meeks and Blake, but if this season has taught them anything, it’s that nothing ever goes exactly the way you plan it. Goudelock wouldn’t have it any other way.

"For a guy like me, I've been through so many different types of situations, and it seems like I'm always the one that gets the short end of the stick,” he said. “But, you know, I always just try to keep a smile on my face, keep my head up, and you know you're always going to be where you're supposed to be. If you're working hard, if you're really working hard and you want something, you're going to get there. Nobody is going to be able to stop you from getting there whether you get the short end of the stick or not."

LOS ANGELES -- At the very least, tip your hat to Andrew Goudelock and Darius Morris.

The Los Angeles Lakers had no business beating the San Antonio Spurs on Friday with no Kobe Bryant, no Steve Nash and no Steve Blake in the lineup.

Despite Goudelock's MVP campaign in the D-League, they had no business having as much faith in a guy who spent all season with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers to start a playoff game against the team that won the second-most games in the West this season.

And even though Morris started 17 games this season and continued to stay in the gym late even when his minutes dwindled the last two months, there was no real evidence that putting the ball in his hands for a crucial playoff game could work.

But you couldn't peg this one on the backcourt. In fact, Goudelock tied Tony Parker with 20 points and Darius Morris scored 24 to go along with six assists.

OK, enough about the silver lining.

Friday wasn't the official death knell for this (literally) painful Lakers season as L.A. doesn't go fishing until the Spurs have won four games, but no team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit and this depleted Lakers squad certainly isn't going to be the first.

The 31-point blowout in Game 3 was the worst home playoff loss in franchise history, beating out Game 2 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals when Portland won by 29.

In a way, it seemed fitting.

In a season where everything that could go wrong seemingly did -- from a coaching change, to rampant injuries, slow-forming chemistry and even the death of legendary owner Dr. Jerry Buss -- why wouldn't a record like that be attached to this team?

How it happened: A whole lot of Tim Duncan (26 points on 12-for-16 shooting), some stingy Spurs defense (L.A. shot just 43.2 percent and 4-for-20 from 3) and too much depth from the guys in black and silver against the guys who are black and blue with injuries.

What it means: The offseason questions will begin sooner than a lot of us expected. Is Mike D'Antoni truly safe, or will those "We want Phil!" chants we heard on Friday actually come to fruition? Who gets waived via the amnesty clause -- Kobe? Pau Gasol? Blake? Metta World Peace? Anybody? Will Dwight Howard re-sign? Will Nash and Bryant be able to come back healthy for their 18th seasons?

Hits: Gasol had his third triple-double in his last six games with 11 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.

Morris and Goudelock (see above).

Dwight Howard had 25 points and 11 rebounds but shot just 7-for-15 from the free throw line.

Misses: After 31 points combined in his last two regular-season games, Antawn Jamison has just 19 points combined in the playoffs.

Stat of the game: The Spurs bench scored 46 points. The Lakers' bench scored nine.

Up next: Game 4 is Sunday at 4 p.m. PT. There's a chance Nash will be back, but you get the feeling that chance would be better if L.A. had won Friday.

SAN ANTONIO -- Without the guy with the reputation for being basketball's ultimate closer, the Los Angeles Lakers looked lost and overmatched in the final minutes of quarters all night in their 102-91 loss in Game 2 to the San Antonio Spurs.

While the Spurs' Tim Duncan, who turns 37 on Thursday, was able to put his stamp on the game with 16 points, five rebounds and two blocks, the Lakers' 39-year-old Steve Nash looked, quite literally, to be on his last leg.

Playing for only the second time since missing the Lakers' final eight regular-season games with nerve damage in his right hamstring stemming from a right hip injury, Nash was just a shell of his former two-time MVP self.

Nash gave it his all in 32 minutes, shooting 50 percent from the field (nine points on 4-for-8 shooting) and dishing out a game-high six assists, but he didn't have the type of impact on the game he's used to having, and was seen limping around the court in dead-ball situations.

The Kobe Bryant-less Lakers just didn't have an answer on offense or composure on defense at the end of quarters, whereas the Spurs hunkered down and made what started off as anybody's game, another W for the team in silver and black.

How it happened: The Spurs were 35-6 at home and the No. 2 team in the West during the regular season for a reason. As much as it was Duncan's consistency, it was about Tony Parker's brilliance (28 points and seven assists), Matt Bonner's timeliness (10 points on 4-for-5 shooting, five rebounds and three steals), Kawhi Leonard's athleticism (16 points, seven rebounds) and Manu Ginobili's Manu-ness (13 points and seven assists in 19 minutes).

What it means: The Lakers played inside-out as planned and it wasn't enough. Dwight Howard (16 points, nine rebounds, four blocks) wasn't as dominant as planned (five turnovers, five fouls), nor was Pau Gasol (13 points on 5-for-14 shooting).

Hits: L.A. made slight improvements in 3-point shooting (8-for-22 instead of 3-for-15) and turnovers (13 instead of 18) from Game 1.
Steve Blake had 16 points before injuring his leg late in the game.

Misses: Jodie Meeks (sprained left ankle) did not play.

Stat of the game: The Spurs had seven players with seven points or more.

Up next: The Lakers are sure to get an emotional lift with Bryant in the building for Friday's Game 3 at Staples Center. As they say in this business, a playoff series doesn't truly start until a team wins on the road. If the Lakers can hold serve and win on their home court, then going into Game 4 down 2-1 doesn't seem so daunting. Of course, if they lose Friday then it will just about be time to turn the lights off on the Lakers' thoroughly disappointing 2012-13 season.

SAN ANTONIO -- The Los Angeles Lakers said all the right things Wednesday after it became official that Mike Brown, who was let go by the Lakers in November after the team's 0-8 preseason and 1-4 regular season start, was rehired by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

"Mike’s a great coach," said Mike D'Antoni, Brown's replacement in L.A. "He’ll do a great job."

"I’m happy for him," said Pau Gasol, one of the eight players on the Lakers roster who played for Brown in 2011-12, his only full season in L.A. "I think Mike is a really good coach, so he’s going to I’m sure help Cleveland be a better team. They have a young team. Mike is a hardworking coach. Very dedicated. Pays attention to detail. So, he’s going to help them out."

Said Steve Nash: "He’s an extremely hard worker, a very passionate basketball person. He has an emphasis on defense and he does a great job. I think he’s a very good coach."

Added Dwight Howard: "I’m happy for him. He’s a great guy and he’s back in Cleveland, so I’m pretty sure he’s happy about that."

It remains to be seen just how happy Lakers management will end up about the development.

The Lakers owe Brown approximately $7 million for the remaining two years on his contract with the team, but the Cleveland hiring will offset some of that. According to a team source, the Lakers expect "at most" half of what they owe Brown to be offset and that the $3-4 million that it would amount to would be a "grain of sand on the beach" when it comes to impacting the Lakers' finances. The Lakers will not know the final amount they will save on the Brown hiring until his new contract with the Cavs is finalized and approved by the league, which could take "up to a month," according to the source.

The other way Brown's hiring could be felt in L.A. is with D'Antoni's coaching staff. All but two of D'Antoni's assistants -- his brother, Dan D'Antoni and Chuck Person, who was hired when Phil Jackson was the head coach -- were brought on by Brown.

That means that D'Antoni could have significant spots on his staff to fill next season if Brown attempts to lure assistant coaches Steve Clifford, Bernie Bickerstaff, Darvin Ham, player development coach Phil Handy or the team video and support staff of Kyle Triggs, J.J. Outlaw and Tom Bialaszewski.

"You know what? I’m thinking about San Antonio, that’s all I got time for," D'Antoni said Wednesday when asked if he's considered what his coaching staff could look like next season. "Then we’ll figure out everything else later. No, I’m not even thinking about it."

SAN ANTONIO -- If any one thing was established in Game 1 of the Los Angeles Lakers' series against the San Antonio Spurs, it was the Kobe Bryant-less Lakers intend to get the ball inside to Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol early, often and always.

"We're inside-out now," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said Monday. "We're full blown and we're going to keep doing that."

Howard and Gasol accounted for 28 of the Lakers' 73 shots Sunday (38.4 percent). But they also coughed up 10 of the Lakers' 18 turnovers.

It's a good thing L.A. is committing to Howard, a seven-time All-Star, and Gasol, a four-time All-Star, but the problem is if you go to the well one too many times against a solid, well-coached defensive team such as San Antonio, the predictability hurts you.

"Let's see if we can have a little bit better ball movement before we try to get the ball in, because if we try to fight it too much and force it too much is when the turnovers came in, most of them," Gasol said. "So, we just got to move their defense a little bit better and swing the ball, then try to post the ball up into Dwight or myself. Then it won't be as easy for them to front or make things hard for us."

D'Antoni said the goal for the two practices between Sunday's Game 1 and Wednesday's Game 2 was "cleaning up our offense."

That entails cutting down on the 18 turnovers that led to 14 points for the Spurs, but also shooting the ball better. L.A. shot just 41.1 percent overall from the field, and an anemic 3-for-15 on 3-pointers (20 percent). D'Antoni said Andrew Goudelock, an undersized guard with a legitimate 3-point stroke who was in the D-League a week ago, could also get playing time.

"A lot of it is just not being familiar with what we’re trying to do, putting in new sets, guys not being in the right spots," D'Antoni said. "A lot of it is [the Spurs] are active and they're good. We have to be a little bit smoother in what we're doing in trying to clear out. Again, we're trying to put the ball inside all the time into a tight spot. We got a lot of guys in there, so it's just trying to clean and do a better job. Some of it was we just mishandled the ball. We just got to be a little more careful with the ball."

Gasol was asked to explain exactly what the "new sets" and "wrinkles" that D'Antoni was talking about the Lakers had planned, without giving away too much.

"We're just trying to move the ball and create a couple actions before we dump the ball in the post," Gasol said. "We got to move their defense so the passes are not so forced and it's not so predictable and everybody sees that we're trying to keep that path right now and everybody's looking at it.

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SAN ANTONIO -- Jodie Meeks sat with his left leg elevated on the chair next to him as he watched his teammates shoot around after practice Tuesday.

Meeks missed his second consecutive practice after spraining his left ankle in the first half of the Los Angeles Lakers' 91-79 Game 1 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.

Despite sitting out, the Lakers backup guard said he plans to "give it a go" in Wednesday's Game 2.

"It's the playoffs, man," Meeks said. "If it was the regular season, I'd sit out."

Meeks, who averaged 7.9 points during the regular season, scored just four points in Game 1 on 1-for-4 shooting, and also had two turnovers in 20 minutes.

Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said there was "no doubt" the team would turn to Darius Morris to fill in with some minutes if Meeks is too hampered to play. Morris went 0-for-1 from the field and picked up one foul in eight minutes Sunday.

D'Antoni said recent signee Andrew Goudelock could play as well.

"We need somebody to put the ball in the basket," D'Antoni said.

The Lakers shot just 3-for-15 from 3 (20 percent) in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series with the Spurs.

D'Antoni says he hopes Steve Nash is one of the players improving that shooting line. Nash scored 16 points on 6-for-15 shooting Sunday and missed the only 3-pointer he took, playing for the first time in nine games because of nerve damage in his right hamstring stemming from a right hip injury.

Nash was able to practice Monday and Tuesday, however, and D'Antoni said he was going to rely on the 17-year veteran guard in Game 2.

"I think about 5-6 minutes is all he needs to go [at a time]," D'Antoni said about Nash, who contributed to the Lakers being a plus-2 in the 30 minutes he played Sunday. "Then he starts going over the hill a little bit. So, we'll watch out. But, we're going to need him out on the floor. So, he'll get through some stuff. He's a competitor, once he gets out there, he wants to go. So we'll try to watch it and then try to watch how he looks physically."

SAN ANTONIO -- After sending out more than a dozen tweets during and after the game as the Los Angeles Lakers played the San Antonio Spurs to open the playoffs Sunday, Kobe Bryant vows he'll keep his 140-character contributions to himself come Game 2 on Wednesday.

"To tweet or not to tweet.. I CHOOSE not 2," Bryant wrote to his more than 2.2 million followers Monday. "Focus should be on the team not my insight. @georgelopez voice 'Can't DO nothin!' #vinospeare"

Bryant's tweets were the last thing Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni wanted to talk about after L.A. lost 91-79 in Game 1.

"It’s great to have that commentary,” D'Antoni said sarcastically before rolling his eyes to the assembled media.

In all, Bryant, who is recovering from the Achilles surgery he underwent last week, sent out 13 tweets during the game and postgame media availability time Sunday. For reference, Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose has tweeted eight times to his 870,000-plus followers since the start of the 2012-13 season that he's missed because of an ACL injury.

"He’s a fan right now,” D’Antoni said Sunday. “He’s a fan, and you guys put a little more importance on that kind of fan. But he’s a fan. He gets excited and he wants to be a part of it so that’s good.”

Bryant did not seem too thrilled with D'Antoni's word choice, tweeting, "A fan?? Lol #microphonetalk," and later adding, "On to game 2. I will be watching from the crib again in a pau jersey and laker face paint ha! All jk aside We will be fine on wed #fanmamba"

Bryant made it clear he did not want to become a distraction for the No. 7 seeded Lakers as they try to upset the No. 2 seeded Spurs.

"I see my tweeting during the game is being talked about as much as the game itself," Bryant tweeted Sunday. "Not my intention , just bored as I guess #notagain"

He added, "I would but don't want my dudes having distractions plus some writers luv creating controversy so why give them the amo."

Bryant is expected to be out six to nine months while recovering from the Achilles tear in his left leg. He is planning to return for the start of the 2013-14 season, however.

The 17-year veteran has been immobilized at his Newport Beach, Calif., home since the surgery but tweeted earlier last week that he plans to be at Staples Center for Games 3 and 4 against the Spurs when the series shifts to L.A.

“He’d be coaching if he was here,” Lakers guard Steve Blake told reporters after Game 1. “He’d be telling us exactly what to do, when to do it. He’s just trying to stay engaged. He’s a competitor and he wishes he was out there. We all wish he was out there. But unfortunately for us, he’s stuck to being a sideline coach.”

SAN ANTONIO -- Sometime during the third quarter of a Game 1 that just couldn't find a rhythm, Kobe Bryant chimed in on Twitter some 1,350 miles away from San Antonio at his Newport Beach, Calif. home.

"This game has a 'steal one' written all over it for us," Bryant tweeted.

It looked that way for a little while, with the Los Angeles Lakers cutting the San Antonio Spurs' lead that was 12 shortly after halftime down to four after a Steve Blake fadeaway jumper midway through the third. But rather than wilt with a little pressure, San Antonio had the cushion back to 13 heading into the fourth and ultimately held firm for a 91-79 victory.

Coming into the series, the Lakers talked about their defense needing to show up and set the tone, and guess what? That happened.

The Spurs shot just 37.6 percent from the field, but L.A. was more anemic on offense, shooting three for 15 (20 percent) on 3-pointers.

We'll see if the Lakers missed a golden opportunity Sunday or if they just needed to flush a game out of their system before Game 2.

How it happened: Quite simply, the Spurs' guy with the injured hamstring outplayed the Lakers' guy with the injured hamstring. Not that Steve Nash was terrible out there, he gutted out 16 points on 6-for-15 shooting in 31 minutes with three assists and just one turnover, but he was a step slow on defense and missed a few timely shots that really could have made it a tight game in the third. Manu Ginobili, meanwhile, only scored two more points than Nash (18) and shot slightly better (6-for-13), but he made timely contributions with a momentum-swinging 3-pointer late in the third quarter to put the Spurs up 12 and a nail-in-the-coffin assist to Matt Bonner, who hit a 3 late in the fourth, to seal it.

What it means: The Spurs came into the game having lost their last five regular-season games against Western Conference playoff teams, and coach Gregg Popovich admitted that his team looked "discombobulated" when he spoke to the media before Sunday's game. Meanwhile, the Lakers had won five straight, including two in a row without Bryant, and seemed to be clicking. So, what does Game 1 mean? That the regular season is ancient history. The Spurs got back to their game when it counted. Now L.A. has to prove it can do the same.

Hits: Pau Gasol (16 points, 16 rebounds, six assists) was just four assists away from his third triple-double in his past four games.

Dwight Howard had 20 points and 15 rebounds and was able to manage playing with five fouls without fouling out.

Misses: Jodie Meeks (1-for-4) not only had a rough day from the field, but he suffered a mild sprain of his left ankle. Lakers trainer Gary Vitti re-taped Meeks, and the backup guard was able to get back in the game, but they’ll have to monitor the swelling heading into Game 2.

Howard started off 2-for-2 from the free throw line and finished 4-for-8.

Stat of the game: Howard (8-for-12) was the only Lakers player to shoot better than 50 percent.

Up next: The teams get two days of rest before Wednesday's Game 2. The time off should benefit the Lakers, as it will give Nash and Meeks two days to recover and Mike D'Antoni two days to make adjustments.

After one of the most arduous and pitfall-filled seasons in Los Angeles Lakers history, if not in the entire history of the league, the guys in purple and gold find themselves in the postseason with a first-round series against the San Antonio Spurs.

L.A. has to feel good about itself, finishing the regular season 28-12 after bottoming out with a record eight games below .500 in late January. They were even better in April, going 7-1, including winning their last five in a row to secure the No. 7 seed and set up their date with the No. 2 Spurs.

However, during that final postseason push, Kobe Bryant went out with an Achilles tear in his left foot, requiring surgery that will sideline him for six to nine months.

Can the Bryant-less Lakers upset a Spurs team that finished with the second-best record in the West and third-best record in the entire league?

Here are 10 things to think about heading into the series to determine just how realistic a possibility that is.

1. San Antonio's home-court advantage

Even though the Spurs looked somewhat ripe for the picking, having gone 3-7 over their final 10 games of the regular season, remember that the series opens up at the AT&T Center, where they went 35-6 this season. Meanwhile, the Lakers were just 16-25 away from Staples Center. It will be a major challenge for L.A. to bring the series back home with a split after the first two games in San Antonio.

2. Hamstrings

Definitely the body part that could have the biggest impact on the series for both teams. Steve Nash plans to play in Game 1 after missing the Lakers' last eight games because of a bum right hamstring, hip and lower back. Manu Ginobili only played one game in April -- an uninspiring 12 minutes in the season finale -- because of his own right hamstring injury. If Ginobili is healthy, he could have a field day carving up the Lakers' perimeter defense that is missing Bryant and has a hobbled Metta World Peace out there still less than a month removed from knee surgery. If Nash is healthy, L.A. gets another elite shooter to help open up the floor so Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol have more room to operate down low.

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LOS ANGELES -- A day after Los Angeles Lakers manager Mitch Kupchak said Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni would be back next season, D’Antoni was named the NBA Western Conference coach of the Month for games played in April, the NBA announced Thursday.

Mike Woodson, who was D’Antoni’s former assistant and replaced him as the coach of the New York Knicks, was named the NBA Eastern Conference Coach of the Month.

D’Antoni guided the Lakers (along with the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers) to the best record in the conference in April at 7-1. The Lakers won five straight games to close the season, including three over Western Conference playoff teams -- Golden State, San Antonio and Houston, the final two without the services of Kobe Bryant, who tore his Achilles tendon with over three minutes left in a tie game with Golden State. The seventh-seeded Lakers finished the season 45-37 and will face San Antonio in the first round of the playoffs beginning Sunday.

There had been talk of D’Antoni’s job security with the Lakers on the verge of not making the playoffs entering the final week of the season, but Kupchak put that talk to rest after the Lakers defeated Houston on Wednesday to secure a playoff berth and a seven seed, which seemed out of the question on Jan. 23 when the D’Antoni and the Lakers held a team meeting with the Lakers languishing with a 17-25 record.

The Lakers have since gone 28-12 to finish the season, which is what D’Antoni predicted the Lakers would have to do to make it into the playoffs.

"I think under the circumstances, Mike did a great job. We don't anticipate any kind of a change," Kupchak told ESPNLosAngeles.com. "No training camp, all the injuries, through the end of the season he's done a great job."

D'Antoni took over as the Lakers coach after Mike Brown was fired just five games into the season after the team started 1-4 with a star-studded lineup that include Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant.

The lineup, however, was rarely on the court together as D'Antoni went just 12-20 out of the gates as the Lakers struggled with injuries, especially to their point guards Nash and Steve Blake. The Lakers’ “Big Four” of Bryant, Gasol, Howard and Nash were only able to 22 games together this season as D’Antoni continuously mixed and matched lineups.

"He doesn't get enough credit, and understandably so," Kupchak said. "We struggled through two-thirds of the season, and expectations were so high. The Lakers didn't help things by making the coaching change and putting Mike in that situation, which he was glad to take. But I think it was a little bit tougher than he thought it would be."

LOS ANGELES -- Last week, before the Lakers' already nightmarish season seemingly veered completely off the tracks with Kobe Bryant's ruptured Achilles tendon, Bryant was still confident that the Lakers wouldn’t just make the playoffs but that they could win a championship.

As he sat in front of his locker following the media scrum he said, “Look at what the Kings did last year. They got into the playoffs as the eight seed and won the Stanley Cup. We’re trying to do the same thing.”

Bryant attended a number of the Los Angeles Kings' playoff games with his daughters during their magical and improbable run to the Stanley Cup last summer and didn’t understand why it couldn’t be duplicated on the basketball court this summer.

“There’s no reason we can’t do it,” Bryant said. “Everything resets in the playoffs.”

Of course, that was before Bryant was lost for the season and we found out that Steve Nash's assortment of injuries weren’t just day-to-day bad but taking-two-epidurals-just-to-practice bad. Nevertheless, Bryant’s stance doesn’t change and neither does the Lakers’ goal heading into the playoffs.

After the Lakers clinched a playoff berth that Bryant promised would happen back when the Lakers were well below .500, he tweeted, “And to think some said we wouldn’t make it.. #keepcalm #believe #playoffs now #makehistory”

He later tweeted, “Playoff promise fulfilled #ontothenext”

It doesn’t make sense that the Lakers will be entering the playoffs, without Bryant and possibly without Nash, as confident as they’ve been all season. But that’s exactly the way the Lakers were feeling after their 99-95 overtime win over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday to clinch the seventh seed and a first round match-up against the San Antonio Spurs which begins on Sunday.

They are finally moving the ball the way Mike D’Antoni envisioned they could. They are finally playing defense with the kind of intensity that Dwight Howard hoped they would. And they are playing inside-out and relying on their bigs as Pau Gasol and Howard have pleaded for since November.

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LOS ANGELES -- The Lakers are in.

In what seemed like a remote possibility months ago and a dicey proposition even a week ago when Kobe Bryant went out with a torn Achilles, the Lakers not only got into the playoffs, they got in playing a brand of basketball that could equate to some continued postseason success.

Here they are, 16 wins from an unlikely championship No. 17, with a suddenly stingy defense that allowed its past two opponents -- one of them being the highest-scoring team in the league in the Houston Rockets and the other being the No. 2 team in the West in the San Antonio Spurs -- to average 93 points on 39.3 percent shooting.

Here they are, riding a wave of momentum and playing with one rock that is finding so many hands -- from the five guys who scored eight points or more against the Spurs to the six guys who tallied nine points or more against the Rockets.

Even when the ball was spread around Wednesday, it didn't always go in, of course; L.A. shot just 36.7 percent as a team. But the fact that it kept moving kept the Lakers' bodies moving on defense.

"The great thing about it was everybody contributed," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said.

Who makes up the "everybody" on the Lakers' roster that D'Antoni was referring to has changed drastically throughout the season and maybe even more so in the past two games without Bryant.

Suddenly Darius Morris has a place off the bench. And Steve Blake is relied on to score (47 points over his past two games, a dramatic change from the player who scored two points or fewer 16 times in 2011-12). And Jodie Meeks is starting in Bryant's place and even receiving "Jo-die! Jo-die!" chants from the crowd, taking Kobe's cheers.

Most important, the team identity is firmly established. The Lakers are an inside-out team controlled by Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol. They are not the second coming of Showtime. They are not Bryant freelancing with shades of the triangle. They are not Steve Nash running the pick-and-roll or Bryant running the pick-and-roll.

This is a team that will slow you down, grind you out, pound you all over and do it on both ends.

"Because [Bryant is] such a big, important part of what we did, and rightly so, it is different," D'Antoni said before the game Wednesday. "And then when Nash comes back, it will be a little different again. So, there’s always different layers, but he’s a big layer or two."

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LOS ANGELES -- In what has seemed at times like a never-ending Los Angeles Lakers season, the last game of the regular season came down to the last minute of overtime.

The Memphis Grizzlies seemingly took most of the drama out of the night for the Los Angeles Lakers before their game had even tipped off against the Houston Rockets.

Memphis beat the Utah Jazz to assure the Lakers a playoff berth for the eighth straight season and 19th time in the past 20.

So, as disastrous as the Lakers' season has seemed, L.A. did make good on Kobe Bryant's playoff guarantee even with Bryant out for the rest of the season after Achilles tendon surgery and, even with a loss against Houston, L.A. would finish the season 28-12 over its final 40 games.

But there was still the business of who the Lakers' and Rockets' first-round opponents would be.

The winner would get to play the No. 2-seeded San Antonio Spurs. The loser would have to face the Western Conference's top team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

L.A. gets the Spurs, it turns out, after a 99-95 overtime win over the Rockets. So instead of having to face a 60-win Oklahoma City team that ousted L.A. from the playoffs last season, the Lakers get a Spurs team that is just 3-7 over its last 10 games heading into the playoffs, including a 91-86 loss to the Lakers last weekend.

How it happened: L.A. fell down 18-12 early, prompting coach Mike D'Antoni to call a timeout, which spurred a 9-0 run by the Lakers. The Rockets built their lead to 11 in the second half before the Lakers' new "big three" of Steve Blake (24 points after 23 points Sunday against San Antonio), Dwight Howard (16 points) and Pau Gasol (17 points and a bunch of other great stats), gave the team a three-point lead with less than a minute left in the fourth. That's when the ball found itself in the hands of the Rockets' Chandler Parsons, who hit a dead-away 3-pointer from 36 feet to tie the score at the regulation buzzer.

In overtime, Jodie Meeks atoned for his 1-for-9 start from the field by throwing down a momentum-changing baseline dunk, and tacking on a huge free throw to put L.A. up by four with 14.5 seconds left. James Harden cut it to two with two free throws, but Blake iced it with a final two freebies to end the game 8-for-8 from the line.

What it means: The Lakers are 2-0 without Bryant, and even though San Antonio is still a tough place to open the playoffs, there is no denying the momentum they will take with them into the postseason whether No. 24 is in the lineup or not.

Hits: Gasol finished with 17 points, 20 rebounds and 11 assists for his second triple-double in his last three games.

Blake's 47 points over his last two games are more than Steve Nash's highest two-game total this season (38, twice).

Antawn Jamison scored 16 points off the bench.

Misses: Nash missed his eighth straight game because of right hip, hamstring and lower-back pain. Nash revealed to ESPN's Chris Broussard during an in-game sideline interview that he received two epidurals this week to try to deal with the pain.

Stat of the game: L.A. held Houston, which had averaged 106.1 points coming into Wednesday, to just 95 points in 53 minutes of game time.

Up next: The Lakers will open up the postseason with Game 1 of its first-round series with the Spurs in San Antonio on Sunday.

Tim Grover knew what had happened almost instantly. The look on Kobe Bryant's face just wasn’t right. The way he stayed down on the ground, the way he grabbed the back of his heel -- it all pointed in a bad direction.

“I knew,” Grover said. “I knew it was something serious.”

Grover has been Bryant’s trainer since 2007. He’s nursed him back from all sorts of serious injuries and helped him find a work-around to knee issues that once threatened the guard's career. So long as Bryant had the will to do the training and attack the problems, Grover would give him solutions and courses of action.

It’s why Grover’s longtime client Michael Jordan recommended him to Bryant after Jordan retired, and why he’s essentially been at Bryant’s side ever since.

But a torn Achilles tendon -- which Bryant suffered April 12 in the fourth quarter of the Lakers' 118-116 win against the Golden State Warriors -- was something altogether different. You can’t do any strengthening exercises to get you back on the court in a few days. You can’t push through the pain. You’re just out, for a good long while.

“It didn’t hurt me as much as it hurt him,” Grover said. “But it’s pretty damn close. I just know how much this means to him and how hard he’s worked to be in this position.”

In the first few hours after the injury, Grover knew what needed to be done. Research everything, give Bryant his options, think it all through with him, help him make the best decisions. Was it better to have surgery right away or wait? Are there options besides surgery? How long would the recovery really take? Who has made the best recovery from a similar injury?

“The guy who jumped out at me was [David] Beckham,” Grover said. Immediately, he began reading up and making calls to Beckham’s camp to find out the keys to success.

As frustrating and heartbreaking as the situation was, there was no time to dwell on it.

“Kobe always wants to know everything,” Grover explained. “Every detail. Why we’re doing this? What our options are? He’s very detail-oriented.”

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Dwight Howard had been there. To the operating table, to the dark place a career-threatening injury can plunge a superstar into, and down the long, frustrating road that comes next.

He'd been there, and so he is determined to be there for Kobe Bryant as he goes through the same experience now, trying to come back from a completely torn Achilles tendon.

Saturday afternoon Howard visited Bryant at the hospital before and after he'd had surgery. And it won't be the last time.

"I know how he feels," Howard told ESPNLosAngeles.com. "It hurts. I just wanted to be there."

Bryant mentioned the meeting on his Twitter feed after the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night.

"D12 was a beast," Bryant tweeted. "He stopped by the hospital twice yesterday to check on big bro. that's luv #countond12"

Howard had 26 points and 17 rebounds in the win over the Spurs.