LOS ANGELES — Nothing about the game was normal. Not the tributes. Not the chants. Not the emotion. Not the reflection.

But before the Lakers could begin to move forward from the death of Kobe Bryant on Sunday, they needed to look back. Anthony Davis went back to the 2012 Olympic Games in London, when he was the youngest player on the United States men’s basketball team and the last guy off the bench. The United States was up big on Nigeria when Davis was finally summoned to shed his warm-ups and play. But there was one problem: Davis, in all his exuberance at age 19, had forgotten to put his jersey on.

Bryant, the oldest player on the team at the time, was flabbergasted and let Davis know it. The lesson stuck.

“Before every game, I check that I have my jersey on — to this day,” Davis told reporters. “He taught me how to get dressed before a game.”