After Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Cam Reddish opted out of the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against the Utah Jazz, LeBron James took it upon himself to return to his playmaking roots.

James had the opportunity to dominate on-ball duties, and he reminded the Lakers and the rest of the league that he remains one of the game’s best passers and tacticians.

James helped Los Angeles to a narrow 105-104 victory over Utah, a solid start to the team’s road trip.

Thanks to Anthony Davis and James, who controlled the offense in the crucial minute, the Lakers were able to keep up. James explained that he and Davis will have to look for disagreements when the time comes, which they haven’t done much this season with JJ Redick’s new plans, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:

“Yeah, I think you have to have the ability to do it,” James said. “It’s something we haven’t done before, but it was needed tonight. Obviously we had a lot of our big guns out with AR and DLo, so we had to go to more of a two-man game with me and AD, which obviously our team isn’t as comfortable with, but AD and I are. So we just tried to get the other guys on the floor in comfortable positions so they could read and react if something broke.”

James has had the ball in his hands less often than ever before, as his 28.2 usage rate is the lowest of his 22-year career. He admitted that it takes some getting used to:

“I may not know. This is the lowest usage rate of my career, so it’s definitely been an adjustment… Tonight felt a little more normal. With AR and DLo out, ball handling tasks obviously become more common and I had to do that today. It felt normal to me. But the way we want to play this year is a little different and I’m getting used to it too.”

Although James has taken a back seat to players like Reaves and Russell, it’s clear that the Lakers operate better when he dominates the basketball. The team can do its best to handle its reps during the regular season, but in the playoffs everyone understands that James will need the ball to perform at his best.

LeBron James believes the Lakers will need to lean on each other during the four-game road trip

A win against Utah was almost a must given the games remaining on their road trip. With a difficult period ahead, LeBron James stressed that the Lakers players need to lean on each other.

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