The Lakers are out of the playoffs - and out came that photograph of LeBron James no fan in Los Angeles wanted to see. The fourth game wraps it up, the series ends 4:0 for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Lakers head home at the moment the rest of the league is dreaming about its summer transfer plan.

When the game ended 115:110 to the Thunder, LeBron didn't make a scene. He walked across the floor, shook hands with the Oklahoma players, and when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and former teammate Alex Caruso intercepted him, he said something very simple: "Take another one." That's basically the only scenario in which LeBron admits a loss - when it's over and there's nothing left to play for.

Without Luka Dončić, the Lakers have no one to hand the game to. The reality is that the actual, reigning champion doesn't wait around - the game is played on his court and by his rules. The Lakers played bravely, but bravery doesn't win you a playoff round across four games.

The LeBron-Gilgeous-Alexander relationship has a history. The reigning MVP is connected to LeBron with the kind of respect you don't perform for cameras. With Caruso the story is different - the two of them lifted the trophy in the bubble in 2020, and that's never forgotten in the NBA.

Now the Thunder are in the Western Conference finals for the second year running, waiting on the winner of the San Antonio - Minnesota duel. The Lakers head into a summer in which the question is no longer "who is leaving", but "what went wrong". How many times does a veteran have to finish the playoffs with that look on his face before some management reacts?