MILWAUKEE — Locker rooms following losses often provide the true temperature of a team.

On Thursday night after their first back-to-back losses of the season, the Lakers were surprisingly upbeat. Part of it was the draw of going back home, where they hadn’t been in 10 days. But a seven-point loss to the Milwaukee Bucks didn’t faze them all that much – the team is confident that their 24-5 start so far is more reflective of who they are than one single defeat.

“On the road, we just kinda got that bunker mentality, that brotherhood on the road,” LeBron James said. “We just look out for one another. … Everyone is energy-givers and not energy-seekers, and that’s big-time, especially for a marathon of a season like this.”

For those who haven’t been trying to forget about last season, it bears mentioning that the recent trip took the Lakers through cities that made them miserable during the failed 2018-19 campaign. In Atlanta, a discouraging late-game fade. In Indiana, a pre-trade deadline blowout. In Milwaukee, a dispiriting game when looming free agents were unabashedly playing for contracts.

All of them shared the same conclusion: Achingly uncomfortable postgame media sessions in the locker room as players tried to tiptoe around sensitive subjects and their own growing frustrations.

Four of those players: JaVale McGee, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Rajon Rondo and Alex Caruso are back after re-signing over the summer, and while they haven’t been the stars of a 24-5 start to the season, they’ve played instrumental roles in key games.

Last season’s march to oblivion – which began with sky-high hopes and ended with grinding through the rest of a meaningless schedule – could have poisoned the well for the most seasoned pro. And from the Lakers’ perspective, running it back with some of those players might not have seemed as appetizing after just 37 wins. But all sides agreed to make it work, waiting out six grudging days of Kawhi Leonard’s free agency to make deals happen.

Here’s why, and here’s how this season has measured up to expectations when they re-signed this summer after last year’s disappointment:

Rajon Rondo: Trusting his teammates

The thing that Rondo, a 13-year veteran, wanted more than anything else after last season was teammates he could trust. As he saw the Lakers assembling a roster of old teammates, he started feeling comfortable with coming back.

Trading for Anthony Davis was a big move that everyone knew would be good for the Lakers, but Rondo also wanted to play with Demarcus Cousins (since injured). Rondo said he told General Manager Rob Pelinka: “If you go grab Cous, you got me.”

“Just playing with my brothers,” he said. “I want to play with guys who obviously I know have my back and are willing to get into the fight.”

Critics cite that Rondo over-dribbles and has fallen off on the defensive end. But he’s also fulfilled a surprising prediction of Coach Frank Vogel’s: that he would be one of the team’s better 3-point shooters (42.9 percent). While his per-game scoring and assist averages have dropped, his efficiency (50.4 eFG percentage) and per-36-minute scoring are up.

After many postgame comments last season about the need to help younger teammates focus around the trade deadline, Rondo seems to feel more comfortable in the locker room. He’s had a smaller role and hasn’t started at all, but he knew that might be the case up front.

“Very transparent,” he said of Lakers management and coaches. “Told me my role coming in, what they expected from me and how I could be a part of this run we’re trying to make.”

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: Showcasing his skills for a winner

He hears you snickering: Of course Caldwell-Pope, represented by Klutch Sports and agent Rich Paul, was a lock for the Lakers with Klutch clients James and Davis already in tow, right?

KCP knows that’s the perception – “that’s how it’s always gonna be with our group,” he said with a laugh – but it’s not how he experienced his decision.

“I wanted to be back, but with my agent, went through the process of free agency,” he said. “Pros and cons, where I wanna be. It was all about what I wanted, and we just took it from there. … But this decision was mine to make, and we just landed together.”

For the previous two seasons, fans have wrung their hands at Caldwell-Pope’s big contracts that haven’t matched production. But while he had an exceptionally rough shooting start, Caldwell-Pope’s 3-point percentage is up to 38 percent, which is right near his career-best rate. He also has been restoring his credibility on the defensive end, stepping in as a starter when Avery Bradley was injured.

KCP might not be the scoring threat he was in Detroit, but the Lakers don’t need a gunner: They need a 3-point spacer and smart cutter, which he’s worked harder to become. He saw himself as the potential complementary piece for a team that could do something he hasn’t done a lot of in his career: win.

He didn’t expect the chemistry to develop as fast as it has so far.

“I mean as a group we know what we’re gonna get out of each other each night, and we try to have each other’s back,” he said. “The thing with last year is it was similar but we had a lot of young guys, so it was kinda hard to keep their minds focused on the game and just play.”

Alex Caruso: A full-time opportunity

As he came on toward the end of last season as players sat out and minutes opened up, it became evident the Lakers would have competition for his services in free agency that summer. But when negotiations finally began, Caruso said the Lakers’ offer, a reported two-year, $5.5 million deal, was the most money he saw.

But the biggest thing he needed to know was that he could compete for a regular rotation spot – assurance he got from the new coaching staff.

“I knew there was opportunity,” he said. “Coach Vogel called me when I was pretty close to making a decision and said there’s opportunity for minutes and that’s all I’ve ever needed in my career. And L.A. was the most money that anyone was going to offer me out of the guys I was talking to. And LeBron, A.D. – I knew we were going to be good.”

Of the returners, Caruso has taken the biggest leap. From two-way contract bit player to rotation folk hero, Caruso has been a fixture in some of the Lakers’ best defensive lineups, boasting a 96.4 defensive rating which is the top mark for any of the team’s regular rotation players. While his numbers don’t pop (5.4 ppg, 1.8 apg, 1.0 spg), he just fits: No Laker has a higher net rating (plus-26.9) in three-man lineups with both James and Davis.

It stood out that Caruso earned his role in the second game of the season after a rough run through the preseason. But he always had faith that the coaching staff, though not the one that had invested in him for the past two years, would see his value.

“At the end of the day, I don’t rely on them to play basketball: I rely on myself,” he said. “I know what I’m capable of, what I bring to the table, and I was confident in myself that I was gonna get it done.”

JaVale McGee: Starting for a title team

Of the returning players, his might be the most straightforward: McGee wanted to start. And he wanted a third ring.

As last season’s team collapsed, McGee never seemed to lose faith in the roster the Lakers had assembled: At his exit interview, he said, “Imagine if we just had the same team all year.” When the Lakers traded for Davis and still wanted a center to start alongside him, he felt the immediate pull to return.

“I was thinking about starting, of course, and also playing with some of the greatest players ever and having the contention to win a championship,” he said. “That’s always on my mind. So I mean I felt like this is the best opportunity for me to possibly start and win the championship out of any other team. I took it.”

McGee said that free agency, as it was for all of these players, felt long, and he “truthfully” wasn’t sure how it would shake out with the Lakers once Leonard decided one way or another, but McGee says he didn’t feel the pressure: “I don’t have a nervous thing that I do. Some things are inevitable. You just have to be ready for whatever happens.”

As ever, McGee has had great range between his highs and lows, sometimes excelling as a rim protector and vertical threat, and sometimes adding to his extensive head-scratchers. But he’s generally been helpful as a starter alongside Davis, and he’s occasionally been great. Teaming with Dwight Howard to man the center position, McGee has said multiple times that these Lakers have the best chemistry 1 through 15 of any team he’s played for, including the Warriors.

Did he see this coming? Not exactly.

“I thought we had a bunch of great vets who knew exactly how to win, but no one can predict,” McGee said in Atlanta. “What are we, 22-3 right now? 23-3? Twenty-FOUR and three. So I don’t think anybody, including LeBron, can predict that.”