It definitely looked like a nasty sprained ankle for Dennis Schroder midway through the fourth quarter. Surely he was going to join the collection of four other injured or ill Lakers who couldn’t play.

Not quite.

Schroder stayed in the game after a heart-to-heart with his coach and scored 14 points down the stretch of a 112-109 Lakers victory Wednesday over the Miami Heat at Crypto.com Arena.

Was it the victory of the season for the Lakers? You decide.

LeBron James sat out because of a non-COVID illness. Anthony Davis missed his 10th game because of a stress fracture in his foot. Knee soreness was the reason starting guard Lonnie Walker IV sat out.

Then reserve forward Troy Brown Jr. left after the first half because of a strained quadriceps muscle.

It looked like Schroder was done for the night too after rolling his ankle while driving to the basket with 5:41 to play. He stepped on Bam Adebayo’s foot, went down hard and grabbed his ankle in obvious pain.

The Lakers called time out. Down so many players, they couldn’t afford another injury.

Coach Darvin Ham asked Schroder if he was good to go.

“I’m not going to be good. I’m going to be great,” Schroder said, according to Ham.

Great indeed.

He made the two free throws he was awarded on the play and then drained a three-pointer from the right side on the next possession.

Then he was fouled while attempting a three-point shot and made all three free throws.

His biggest effort was a three-point play the old-fashioned way, converting on a driving layup and making the free throw after being fouled for a 108-104 Lakers edge with 20.1 seconds left.

Shortly thereafter, he was holding his newborn baby while conducting an on-court interview with Spectrum SportsNet.

“I treat a game like it’s my last,” Schroder said. “I was lucky to be hot tonight.”

The Lakers were a little lucky too. Jimmy Butler missed a three-point shot from the right side that could have tied the game as time expired.

The Lakers (17-21) bumped their winning streak to three in a row despite being 8.5-point underdogs at home to the Heat (20-19).

The Lakers’ defense kept them in the game. They held Miami’s high-scoring guard Tyler Herro to nine points and backcourt mate Kyle Lowry to 11.

“To do that without four of our main pieces … everybody just banded together and continued to fight,” Ham said. “That’s what our identity has to be, night in and night out.”

Not to be forgotten, Thomas Bryant had another solid game in place of Davis, collecting 21 points and nine rebounds. He scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, making all five of his shots. He’s shooting 73% over his last six games, an impressive number for any big man at any time.

But the story was Schroder. He and his coach go back 10 years, when Ham was an assistant with the Atlanta Hawks.

Ham had fun reminiscing about the “tenacious little kid I fell in love with back in Atlanta in 2013,” he said.

“I could tell he was going to be special just because he put the work in and he was competitive. He always shined in big moments.”

As for Wednesday?

“He was phenomenal,” Ham said. “Nothing short of phenomenal.”