LOS ANGELES — Kawhi Leonard slipped into the interview room at Staples Center clad in pearl-white sweats, calling to mind a Jedi sage. His face a mask, he gave no sign of recognizing any reporter, and set to analyzing the just-concluded game with the dispassion of a chess grandmaster.

What, a reporter asked, did you like about your team’s performance?

A long pause. “I enjoyed the third quarter, we got out in transition. That’s the thing I liked.”

That was soon enough of that. Leonard slid out of his chair and was gone.

The next evening, I walked into the Lakers’ postgame locker room in the same arena. Anthony Davis had feet planted in a bucket of ice and a scraggly beard curling out from beneath his hoodie, making him look like a cross between a monk and a stork. Camera people and reporters formed a half-moon around the locker of LeBron James, who 20 minutes later wandered out of the shower, his scalp wrapped in a durag and a towel around his waist.

This aging star cradled a Bose speaker and combed out his beard as he sang along to the rapper Drake:

“I’m only getting older, somebody should have told you …”

He craned his head and tossed a stanza at Davis and another to JaVale McGee and another to Danny Green, and they offered call and response. Pulling on a Dodgers cap, James stood and turned and gave an extended, perceptive take on the night’s victory, even joking about his age, before he excused himself and ambled out the door.