SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — After LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time leader in regular-season minutes on Thursday, Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick congratulated the 39-year-old star in the locker room ahead of the team.

The reception from his teammates after LA’s 113-100 win over the Sacramento Kings was a little more relaxed.

“They told me I was old as hell and all that,” James said after logging 34 minutes to raise his career total to 57,471, moving Abdul-Jabbar into second place with 57,446.

James, a 22-year veteran, is the league’s oldest active player and has finally shown signs of aging this season, as he was recently absent from the team for eight days to rehab a left foot injury.

However, he has had two effective performances since returning to the lineup, and the Lakers have won both games against teams they compete with in the Western Conference standings, namely the Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento. He had 19 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds against the Kings after putting up 18, 8 and 8 against the Grizzlies.

“We missed his voice in the two games he was out – on both ends of the floor,” said Anthony Davis, who finished with 21 points and season highs in rebounds (18) and blocks (6). “I mean, he’s a natural leader when it comes to the game and when things get chaotic, he’s able to take control and just lure us into something and we try to do it the best we can to implement.” “

It wasn’t too long ago that the entire Lakers season felt chaotic, with LA losing seven of nine games and then leaving James out of the lineup for two games to rest.

But the Lakers have bounced back with wins in three of their last four games, with their defense being a strength rather than a weakness as it was during the losing streak.

“For the group, I really felt like this might be my favorite win of the entire season,” Redick said.

Davis added: “We are playing desperately – especially on defense. And it shows.”

Austin Reaves led LA with 25 points, and in addition to James and Davis, three other players reached double figures in points: D’Angelo Russell had 16, Gabe Vincent had 12 points and Rui Hachimura had 10 points.

And James was able to enjoy the full-circle minute performance, back in the same city where he played his first regular-season NBA game in 2003.

“It’s obviously a pretty cool honor to be associated with some of the greats to ever play the game,” James said. “I was available to my teammates. I have achieved this at a high level over two decades. And me continuing to put myself in record books in this game of basketball that I love so much and playing in the best league in the world is pretty cool and very humbling.

LA will stay in Sacramento to finish the two-game set on Saturday, but James said he isn’t ready to look ahead to that game yet.

“I just set the all-time best (mark) in minutes, I’m not thinking about this next game yet,” he said. “I’m going to go straight to this (hotel) room, drink some wine, play Madden and relax.”