The NBA playoffs — the life-and-death rite of spring that once caused Pat Riley to lose 20 pounds, drives many coaches to live in cramped temporary homes better known as offices, and reduced rookie Kobe Bryant to a “nerd” — are here.

It is the time of year where 94-by-50 areas of hardwood become the grandest of stages, while also doubling as interactive chess boards where moves are met with countermoves, and where millimeters matter.

“The playoffs are the real season,” said Patrick Ewing, who averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds in 139 postseason games. “The playoffs are what everything is about — not only the players, but the fans, people working at the arena. Everybody is involved in it. The city is buzzing, it’s spring time, the weather is starting to get better and summer is coming. It’s like when you were in school, spring fever.”

There is a reason why teams mark their playoff victories on the skirt that decorates the scorer’s table. Each win in the postseason is a significant accomplishment. The championship requires 16 victories. To get there is grueling — a stage race, a basketball Tour de Advance.

Rick Fox recalled the fatigue in the 2002 Western Conference finals that nearly buried the Los Angeles Lakers, who faced deficits of 15, 27, 24, 10, 7 and 9 in the final six games of the series, but rallied to win three of them, including Game 7 in overtime on the road at Sacramento.

“I recall being so emotionally spent and exhausted that series that I would go home and not move,” Fox said. “I’m talking about for 24 hours. I’d sometimes fall asleep watching film.”

In the seventh game, Lakers starters provided 107 of the team’s 112 points and 51 of its 52 rebounds.

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“We were a team of five guys at that point,” Fox said. “If ever in my career there was a moment where we were running on fumes, that was it.”

Riley, a coaching legend with slick suits and slicker hair, reportedly lost 20 pounds during the 1988 playoffs, which culminated with his Lakers’ Game 7 victory over the Detroit Pistons in the Finals — L.A.’s third Game 7 triumph over the course of one month. That final victory also made good on Riley’s guarantee of a championship repeat, a boast he had made the previous June.

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So, what does it take to survive — and thrive — in the NBA playoffs? Consensus is that it hinges on these factors: preparation, precision and pure talent. And when those things fail, a team most certainly will be ousted quickly if it fails to stick together and make the most of the opportunity to be part of something great.

Preparation
Bryant’s first playoff series came against the Portland Trail Blazers in 1997 when he was 18.

“Del Harris was our coach and he gave us playbooks,” Bryant said. “And I think I was the only one that actually read it from cover to cover, studied it over and over. My guy to guard at that time was Kenny Anderson, so I studied him inside and out, inside and out. And I felt like one of those kids, one of those nerds that sit in the front row at school, asking questions, raising my hand up real fast. ‘What percentage does he shoot? Oh, he shoots this. What does he do here? I know that.’ I knew everything about him. I played pretty well in that series and I kept those basics with me from that point on.”

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Phil Chenier, who averaged 18 points in 60 career playoff games with the Bullets (Wizards) franchise during the 1970s, said that level of preparation was also part of the game more than 30 years ago.

“(Coach) Gene Shue had us going through some practices then that would total easily four hours. It wasn’t all running, sometimes going through film, walking through plays. I was most impressed by Gene’s ability to get us prepared. We knew every fine detail, every possibility.”

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Veterans who have been through the grind before know how to pace themselves during the regular season, only to adjust their focus as soon as the playoffs arrive.

“When I was a rookie with Boston in 1989, we had a week (five days) before the playoff series started,” recalled Brian Shaw, now an assistant coach with the Lakers. “I’ll never forget the intensity of the practices that week, (Larry) Bird, (Kevin) McHale, (Robert) Parish, watching how their whole attitudes changes and how serious they became.”

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