EL SEGUNDO — They were picked 30 picks apart in the 2010 draft by the same team. For four years in Pacers practice, Paul George and Lance Stephenson were teammates.

But in Indiana Pacers practice, they were most often adversaries. They would guard each other, talk trash and try to best one another. While George, an emerging superstar, was the better player, Stephenson wouldn’t surrender ground.

So when George comes to Staples Center on Wednesday night with the Oklahoma City Thunder (23-13), Stephenson sees it as just like old times.

“We gonna talk trash for sure, man,” he said. “I remember in practice with the Pacers, we’d always go at each other and push each other to be better. And I feel like that made us better.”

The prevailing question for the Lakers (21-16) might be more profound: What would it be like if George was teammates with Stephenson – in Los Angeles with the Lakers?

At one time, the Lakers were considered the preeminent destination for George (a native of Palmdale) as he approached free agency in the summer of 2018, and as his unrest grew in Indiana. But the Thunder made a desperate play to trade for George, and over the course of a season, he was wooed to sign an extension over the summer.

He famously announced to the world on the night free agency was to begin that he was “here to stay” in Oklahoma City onstage at a party with fellow superstar Russell Westbrook. The Lakers didn’t even get a meeting.

The Lakers, understandably, aren’t much interested in revisiting the past – team president Magic Johnson ended up landing his own big fish, LeBron James, and the franchise happily moved on. Coach Luke Walton side-stepped questions about George and what the franchise hoped last offseason.

“You prep yourself, you do your work and then whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen,” he said. “You don’t get too emotionally attached to it. We went after players, LeBron decided to come, Paul didn’t. That’s our team now. We’re very happy we have LeBron James on our team.”

At the moment, James isn’t playing. He’s already been declared out, his fourth absence with a strained groin. Walton said he saw James shooting on Tuesday, the first day of the new year, at the practice facility for the first time since his injury on Christmas.

But even on a night when James won’t play, the question of “what if?” is still a powerful one. Having two of the best wings in the game on the same team would have been a compelling scenario for the Lakers, who have tentatively pushed back their search for a second max contract player alongside James to next summer.

Stephenson said he couldn’t offer much insight into George’s decision to remain with the Thunder, but the two still stay in touch, talking especially around holidays. Even though they no longer practice together, they have a team together playing the NBA 2K video game online, and according to Stephenson (who calls himself the better 2K player), “we ain’t lost a game yet.”

Oh, what could’ve been.

LAKERS LOOK TO PLUG TRANSITION DEFENSE

On the tactical side of Oklahoma City’s visit, there are a few concerns, but perhaps none more urgent than a recent weakness of the Lakers: transition defense.

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Lakers bide their time again, waiting for their Western Conference Finals opponent The Thunder are the No. 4 team in pace and the No. 6 team in fastbreak points per game, and the Lakers have looked vulnerable against quick teams recently. On Sunday, the Sacramento Kings were able to rack up 25 fast-break points against the Laker defense. It’s a hole that Walton said comes down to effort.

“We’re not getting back as much as we should,” he said. “We talked about what kind of identity we are, what our defense is all about. It starts with our transition defense. We spent a lot of time in today’s practice going over that, reinforcing how important that is, especially with Westbrook and the Thunder coming to town.”

In the three games since James has been injured, the Lakers have allowed 19.3 fast-break points per game – nearly six more than their season average.