PARADISE, Calif. — It’s probably safe to say that the teenagers who make up the Paradise High School boys' basketball team have never looked so relieved. Or elated.

All 18 had been driven from their mountain town by the deadliest fire in California history. All but two knew they would never return to their old homes, which burned to the ground, forcing them into motels or guest houses or apartments, often crammed in with parents, siblings, grandparents and pets.

Now they had come together for their first practice four days after the fire, and you would have thought they were taking the floor for the state championship. There were high fives and broad smiles, and their hugs were tighter and more meaningful than they had been before.

“It was an ‘I feel your pain’ hug, an ‘I am here for you’ hug,” said Assistant Coach Ryan Wright, who is also youth pastor to half a dozen players on the team. “It makes me proud, to be part of something like this.”

The hell fire of one month ago took not just 86 lives and thousands of homes but a pine-shrouded haven of serenity and replaced it with an uncertainty that seems to have no end.

Coach Jerry Cleek talks to the team before the start of the game in Orland. Brock Stoneham / NBC News

The Butte County sheriff let residents return to some Paradise neighborhoods in early December, mostly to pick through ashes or to grab belongings from the few homes left standing. It’s unclear how many people will return for good.

A community now scattered across the Sacramento Valley and beyond is looking for hope and a reason to feel whole again. A few people think they have found a measure of both in Paradise High basketball.

Implausibly, despite losing three players and missing half their planned practices, the Bobcats are playing basketball. And not just playing, but focusing and “getting after it,” as Coach Jerry Cleek demands. And winning seven of eight games, through Wednesday, by an average of more than 25 points a game.

A team dominated by seniors, who have played together since grade school, had been dreaming of the year they would finish high school together. Now they are taking all their classes online, playing every game on a foreign court and still believing they might do big things.

That would mean Paradise winning not just league but a championship for the region that covers most of California, north of Sacramento. It would be the first basketball title in 25 years for the town that’s now mostly deserted but numbered 26,218 a little more than a month ago.

“We have all gotten closer than ever, having this traumatic situation," said Joe Lawrie, a senior guard and the team’s purest shooter. “And we have something to fight for … fight for our season. Fight for our school. Fight together.”