LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers still have a chance

LOS ANGELES — Long before the midseason trade that changed everything for the Los Angeles Lakers. Before Russell Westbrook dabbled as a sixth man and jawed with coach Darvin Ham at halftime the night LeBron James became the NBA's career scoring leader. Before Anthony Davis was lost for 20 games with the kind of foot injury that has ended the careers of other big men. Before James was lost for 13 games with a foot injury he needed a doctor of LeBron Jamesian skill to mend.

Before Dennis Schroder and James' joint ice-water-in-my-veins salute after a clutch corner 3-pointer in Tuesday's 108-102 comeback overtime win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the play-in game at Crypto.com Arena for the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference playoffs… there was another corner 3-pointer that put the Lakers in position to somehow stay in contention this season.

That was hit by a guy named Matt Ryan way back on Nov. 2, when the Lakers were about to fall to 1-6 on the season and every conversation in the league seemed to revolve around when the team might implode.

«Man, that feels like five years ago,» Ham told ESPN. «We've really been through a lot this season.»

Ham drew up an out-of-bounds play that called on Austin Reaves to throw the ball over the top of the defense, across the court to find Ryan --then the team's only capable 3-point shooter — for a catch-and-shoot fall-away 3-pointer from the corner to tie a game against the New Orleans Pelicans. It was an impossible pass and an impossible shot. But that's kind of how this Lakers season has gone: rescued from the brink just when all hope seemed lost.

«When we went 2-10, the analytics side gave us a 0.3% chance of making the postseason,» James said after scoring a game-high 30 points