Although they finished it with a conference-best 52-19 record, there is no mistaking the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers team that finished the truncated regular season was some way short of the one that started it.
Despite having much the same personnel, the Lakers fought against some real offensive problems in the bubble, and often lost those battles. They won only three of their eight seeding games, failing to score 100 points three times in that span, and had the worst offense in the bubble among the teams that went on to make the playoffs.
And then in game one of their second-round series versus the Houston Rockets, these problems raised their heads again, scoring only 97 points on 11-38 three-point shooting, to go along with 15 turnovers against only 18 assists.
To have offensive concerns when you have both the ultimate playmaker in LeBron James and the ultimate finisher in Anthony Davis on your team is, in a way, impressive. It does however speak to the limitations elsewhere on the roster, and particularly on the shallow bench - moreover, it is a testament to the fact that for a title competitor, this Lakers team is rather inflexible and struggles when required to deviate from what it does best.
Conversely, these Rockets were constructed precisely to be the kind of team one must adjust to. The most unique team in a generation, they revel in the back-court isolation-heavy style that was considered anathema to successful basketball only 20 years ago, start a former shooting guard at center, and, in an era where having tall long perimeter playmakers at multiple positions is the norm, their front-court players almost never take a dribble.
In their own way, then, the Rockets only play one style as well. Yet having the more flexible defensive personnel - and the fact that knowing what James Harden will want to do does not mean you can prevent it - creates a style that they have made work for them, regardless of the opposition.
In Game 1, the Lakers faced a cluttered paint and could not get through it. Unable to hit consistently from outside as a team, there was no need for the Rockets to come out to shooters, which in turn meant less space for James to drive the ball, and also less opportunity for Davis to post up.
Indeed, although posting up on the Rockets seems like a conventionally good option given their deliberate lack of size, it is not that easy to do. The furiously busy P.J. Tucker will bother anyone down there, Harden is better as a post defender than his long-term reputation for defensive apathy suggests, and Robert Covington is everywhere as a help defender. To neither beat the Rockets around the basket nor on the perimeter does not leave many opportunities to beat them at all.
In a moment of frustration, LeBron was heard during the game lamenting the fact that his team had no spacing. This was particularly true from the wing, where Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Dion Waiters combined to shoot three of 14 from three-point range, while the always-streaky Kyle Kuzma stumbled his way to one of four from outside in an extremely ineffective all-round game.
In fact, it was the reserve guard pairing of Rajon Rondo and Alex Caruso going a combined four for 10 from three that even dragged the team's three point percentage up to the lowly 28.9 per cent that it was, and those are not two shooters normally.
This perimeter paucity has been a problem for the Lakers for a while and is why Waiters and J.R. Smith were brought in late in the season. But unlike what their reputations would suggest, neither is a high-volume high-efficiency outside shooter. If they were, they would not have been available in the first place.
What the pair do have is a justified reputation for hitting tough shots. And if the driving lanes are as clogged going forward as they were in Game 1, then this might be called upon more often.
If the floor is not spaced, it follows of course that James cannot get to the rim as easily. But another long-term problem for the Lakers this year has been that, outside of James, there are very few options for ball-handling and dribble penetration.
Caruso is more of a defensive player than an offensive one, and although Rondo certainly has the handling skills, he does not have the ability to create space or capitalise on it any longer with any consistency. If he cannot do it, no one can, and thus there has been a huge onus on the James and Davis pairing.
Good they are, the Rockets can and did scheme for them. In building the wall, using the length of Covington and the activity of Tucker, they were regularly taking the Lakers out of the things they wanted to do. Going into Game 2, then, will require adjustments.
In theory, removing JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard from the rotation and playing Davis more at the five spot could help improve this spacing, especially considering their opponents. Yet this option has not worked well for the team all year.
Besides, the fact that Tucker is not a rim protector with verticality could in theory open up plenty of lob pass opportunities for the McGee and Howard pairing, offering spacing that way and requiring them to be tracked off the ball even without jump shooting threats of their own. For whatever reason, though, the Lakers could not find these opportunities in game one.
At this point, it would be an overreach for an unqualified charlatan such as myself to act with any certainty when theorising what adjustments can be made. There do however seem to be some obvious schematic shifts that could help.
Better screening and passing in the pick-and-roll seems like a good starting point, as of course is hitting more shots.
Notwithstanding Houston's good man-to-man defensive options down there, getting the ball into the paint - if only to create passing angles - could also help, and coheres better with what the Lakers like to do when at their best (James posted up 174 times this regular season, and shot 52.9 per cent in doing so).
They also should have the significant rebounding advantage, somewhere McGee and Howard can contribute significantly. It is never all about shooting.
In the modern era, however, it is largely about it, as well as the timelessly important defense, somewhere the Lakers looked ill at ease in game one. The wing players need to stay home, the fives need to protect the rim much more alertly, and those that are not much contributing on either need to be removed from the rotation, one which could stand to be shorter than it is.
Plenty to do after an unconvincing opener. And much of what needs to be done will have to come from the supporting cast. It is entirely cliche whenever you say that a team needs one of its 'other guys' to step up. It is however especially true for these Lakers.
Watch the Lakers take on the Rockets in Game 2 live on Sky Sports Arena from 1:30am Monday morning