LOS ANGELES — LeBron James sent the message to the Los Angeles Lakers from Salt Lake City.
There will be no more time wasted, no more excuses and no more waiting.
Sunday, James said he was about to embark on 23 of the most-important regular season games of his career — a stretch that would determine whether the Lakers would make the playoffs or be out of it for the second year in a row.
Full-speed from here on out — and if this was the first step, it was a good start.
With James struggling and the Warriors’ defense locked in on Anthony Davis, the Lakers’ depth and defense was more than enough, the Lakers’ cruising to a 124-111 win out of the break.
The Lakers led by as many as 28 — just the ninth time they’ve led by 20 in a game this season. More importantly, it’s the second game in row the Lakers have led by 20 – another dominant performance against a playoff contender after the team blew out New Orleans last week.
The push comes while the team’s urgency is a stated high — a pack of playoff contenders all trying to surge with the Lakers at the rear.
Everyone in the West, save for Denver, Memphis at the top and Houston and San Antonio at the bottom, has no firm of idea of what the postseason future looks like. As of Thursday, six games separated the third-place Sacramento Kings from the 13th-place Lakers.
“I think it’s a sprint to the finish line,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said pregame. “I know given LeBron’s career and everything he’s achieved that it might sound like hyperbole, but we all feel a sense of urgency at this point. We’re just a couple games ahead of them. We’re all in this precarious position where we could be in the play-in, we could sneak into the six (seed), we could fall out entirely.”
Thursday, the Lakers did without either of their stars dominating offensively, James shooting just five of 20 from the field for 13 points and Davis scoring just 12 on five shots.
It was James’ lowest scoring game since Nov. 11, 2021 — a game where he was ejected and the fewest shot attempts for Davis this season — minus the game in Cleveland where he left early with an illness.
Malik Beasley scored 25 and five different bench players scored at least 10 led by Austin Reaves — who went six for six from the field to score 17.
The Lakers entered post-All-Star stretch of the season with a kind of stability that they hadn’t experienced in more than a season, their team with a clearly established starting five with identity, balance and minimal controversy.
“It’s good to see that,” James said at shootaround Thursday morning. “Right now we feel pretty good and guys are looking forward to getting out and see how much momentum we can develop with this lineup.”
It lasted nine minutes.
The Lakers’ rotten injury luck re-surfaced late in the first quarter, newly acquired point guard D’Angelo Russell spraining his right ankle maybe the least lucky way possible — while throwing an inbounds pass.
After a Warriors made basket, Russell took the ball and stepped back beyond the end line. He didn’t see Donte DiVincenzo standing behind him, and Russell stepped on his foot, rolling the right ankle.
The Lakers ruled him out, and Dennis Schröder started the second half.
