Maybe it was the pizza. Maybe it was the bowling. Maybe it was the Madden.
Or maybe it was LeBron James' wine. The way the Lakers painfully crawled through a head-throbbing, second-round playoff opener against the Houston Rockets on Friday night, it could have been the wine.
Of all their various acknowledged bubble activities -- pizza parties, bowling contests and video games -- during the five-day vacation before their 112-97 loss, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly which, if any, contributed to the Lakers' basic failure to show up.
Here's a scary thought: Maybe it's just who they are.
As they prepare for Game 2 tonight at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Fla., maybe the Lakers need to deal with the fact that they don't have the overwhelming advantages they possessed after losing their first-round playoff opener to Portland.
The Rockets are more blazers than the Blazers. The Rockets are quicker, deeper and far more dangerous. They can make the Lakers look stagnant and stilted and confused. The Lakers have suddenly found themselves in a duel that could test their very being.
"There's got to be a complete turnaround going into Game 2," James said.
But is that who they are? Is that something they can become?
Certainly, there might be some truth to the bromide that a team that just played in a harrowing Game 7 two nights earlier would come into their next series with an intensity edge over the team that had been sitting around for five days.
That wouldn't explain Denver's opening collapse against the Clippers in the other West semifinal earlier in the week. And, to be honest, that probably didn't explain this one.
"The Game 7 team versus the team with rest, I've always felt that the team who played Game 7 has a slight advantage, but we can't look at that like any type of excuse, we're not an excuses team," Lakers Coach Frank Vogel said.
OK, no excuses, only the realities of some frightening possibilities.
Maybe they're a big team that isn't flexible enough to overcome the Rockets' small ball. Playoffs are all about matchups, and so far this season the Rockets have won both games against the Lakers with the disparate lineups.
In the playoff opener, small amazingly matched big with 41 rebounds each. Small contributed to big's 17 turnovers worth 27 points. Small bewitched big into attempting only one fewer three-pointer.
"We were too careless throwing the ball all over the court ... taking quick shots, we've got to be more patient," Vogel said. "It's not necessarily about being big or small always, it's what you're doing on the court."
Or, maybe James is finally showing his age against an energy-filled Rockets team that eventually ran him ragged. He slowly wore down in the opener and, despite some dramatic early flying heroics, finished with zero points in a fourth quarter that decided the game.
"I think it's the speed ... they play with a lot of speed both offensively and defensively," James said. "You can see it on film ... but until you're out there, you get a feel for it ... that's what we did tonight, we got a feel for their speed, and we're fully aware of that going into Game 2."
It was the Rockets who made the Lakers pay for going slow, epitomized midway through the fourth quarter by a loose-ball battle between James and Houston's feisty P.J. Tucker.
The smaller guy won the fight. James fell on top of him for a foul. Moments later, Eric Gordon dashed behind two glued-to-the-ground Lakers on an embarrassing inbounds play for a layup to give the Rockets a 17-point lead.
The Lakers can't take it for granted that those sorts of moments won't occur again in Game 2. With no home-court advantage in the bubble, the Rockets' speed and energy and momentum can easily be repeated. Just ask the floundering Milwaukee Bucks about the streaking Miami Heat.
The Lakers have to remember who they are, and who the Rockets should be, and what should be happening here.
Maybe they're really in trouble. Or maybe Goliath just needs to start acting like Goliath.