LOS ANGELES (AP) — Playing without Anthony Davis hasn’t often been a scenario for the Lakers in recent years.

But when Davis wasn’t available, it usually led to poor results – a scenario the Lakers reversed for at least one game with their 114-106 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night, their sixth win in the last eight games.

With Davis sidelined, the Lakers needed someone other than LeBron James (38 points, eight assists) and Austin Reaves (15 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds) to step up offensively.

Max Christie was that player, and the third-year winger had a career night to help the team to its first win of the new year.

“He puts in a lot of work and it’s paying off for him,” James, 40, said of Christie, still 21. “We have coaches who believe in him, we believe in him and he was spectacular on both ends of the floor.” ”

Christie scored a career-high 28 points, surpassing his previous best of 17 set in a home loss to the Detroit Pistons on December 23. He hit nine of his 16 shots from the field and was 5-for-9 from 3-point range.

“His career night started with a change in defensive disposition,” coach JJ Redick said. “You know how much I believe in Max and I’m just happy that he’s been developing for a few weeks now and that he played three games around Christmas and then came back (Thursday) and seen his career at its peak , is just great.”

Christie has scored in double figures in four of his last five games and has delivered excellent 3-and-D results since becoming a full-time starter in early December.

“My positive self-talk was really good and kind of kept me going,” Christie said. “I hit a couple 3s and had a couple nice reads on the backside to get to the basket and get a couple dunks. I also had five free throws and made every single one. I was aggressive, I was assertive and I stayed positive in my self-talk, even after a bit of a slow start.”

But it was his non-perimeter scoring that helped the Lakers (19-14) keep the Blazers (11-22) at bay after Portland cut the Lakers’ 15-point lead in the fourth quarter (92-77). reduced to 101-97 with less than three minutes left.

The Lakers ran a Horns play that led to a Christie dunk that put the Lakers back up by six points with 2:49 left.

Christie took a 107-100 lead a minute later with two free throws.

“I did a good job of cutting to the basket,” he said. “They were a very physical, very strong team with guys on the ball. So I was able to get behind the defense, do a few dunks and then stand back and hit a few threes.”

After a Shaedon Sharpe dunk cut the Lakers’ lead to five, James made his seventh 3-pointer of the game with just under a minute left to give them an eight-point lead.

“He did it in different ways,” Redick said of James, who attempted 10 3-pointers, the third time this season he attempted double-digit shots from behind the arc. “I like him to be a willing 3-point shooter. We want him to be aggressive and ready to shoot for 3 seconds, just as we want him to be aggressive going downhill and putting pressure on the rim. He is simply fantastic.

“There were a few possessions where it was eight, nine, whatever, even before they cut it down to four, and because they were switching and we were playing small and didn’t have AD out there, there were a few possessions that were like that They were dead possessions and he just saved us. Just another 38 point game for LeBron.”

Later, James made a layup after an off-court play for a 112-106 lead, effectively putting the game out of reach with 17 seconds left.

Reaves struggled with his shooting (5 of 15), but his assist total marked his fourth straight game with double-digit assists.

“Austin has been a driving force for us lately,” Redick said. “He was just, as he usually is, just very dynamic, both with and without the ball, which gave him advantages. And he had a lot of great performances and gave his teammates really good shots.”

James’ point total tied Michael Jordan for the most 30-point games in league history (562). It was also only the eighth game in which an NBA player 40 years old or older scored 30 or more points: four by Jordan and one each by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and Dirk Nowitzki. Abdul-Jabbar and Malone’s games were in the playoffs.

“You know when the heat is on,” James said. “You try to keep it going by continuing to make good shots and the right shots and not moving out of a zone. So you can tell when you’re on the floor and you’ve done a few.”