SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — LeBron James darted into the right corner in front of the Los Angeles Lakers bench and finished aggressively against DeMar DeRozan of the Sacramento Kings.

DeRozan looked James over and tried to hit him up the middle twice, but James forced him away from the basket and into a spinning kick-out pass to Keegan Murray. Murray, stationed on the left wing, swept past Austin Reaves and was picked up by James, who spun off DeRozan.

The 39-year-old striker fended off Murray’s attack, causing him to settle for a contested mid-range throw that clattered off the rim.

On the Lakers’ next possession, Anthony Davis drew a foul and a technical foul on Domantas Sabonis, resulting in three Lakers points and extending their lead to eight points. They would score another five unanswered points and use an 8-0 run to ice the game with an important 113-100 victory over the Kings in Sacramento.

“For the group, I really felt like this might be my favorite win of the entire season,” coach JJ Redick said. “…We had so many different contributions at different times.”

Reaves led the Lakers with 25 points, Davis had 21 points, 19 rebounds, six blocks and three steals and James had 19 points, six rebounds and seven assists.

With the win, the Lakers improved to 15-12 and tied for seventh place in the Western Conference. They have won three out of four games, regaining their footing – at least temporarily – after a difficult period in which they lost seven out of nine games and slipped down the table. Los Angeles also improved to 2-0 against Sacramento this season, a surprising development after going 1-7 against the Kings in the previous two seasons.

Over the last four games, the Lakers have had the league’s best defense, allowing just 98.5 points per 100 possessions. They have held three of their four opponents to 100 points or fewer, a rare feat in 2024 when teams appear to be averaging 110 or more points per game.

Expected The It’s unrealistic to consistently choose the style of defense for a soon-to-be 40-year-old who just passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most minutes played in the regular season on Thursday. But James’ defensive spirit – he also had a crucial block on Keon Ellis – was emblematic of the recent change within the team over the past two weeks.

“Defensively, I think it’s all about taking responsibility and keeping your man,” James said. “We understand that we can’t just let blow-bys happen or whatever the case may be, but also that we stay on the ball with the other four guys on the floor. And it starts with communication. And I think we communicated well with each other in the last four games. And we have to continue that.”

The Lakers have made subtle adjustments defensively, with players being more selective in their transitions and the team using more drop coverage within its pick-and-roll defense. Guards and wings do a better job of funneling ball handlers to Davis, who uses his special defensive skills to wreak havoc.

“I mean, AD is special,” James said. “Don’t take these accomplishments for granted and say, ‘It’s just AD doing AD.’ No. This is a special talent and a special player. And we needed every single one of those (19) boards.”

“(AD) was phenomenal tonight,” Redick added. “And it just shows how excellent a player he is that he can have a seven-for-20 night and still dominate a basketball game.”

Players have often pointed to improved effort, energy and communication in defense rather than any tweaks. Redick has emphasized that the Lakers are a “team defense” because they don’t have the individual defenders, particularly on the perimeter, that many of the league’s elite defenses can boast. Instead, they must focus on the details and rotate and fight to become more than the sum of their parts.

That attitude has finally taken hold in the group, which was 26th in defensive rating before this four-game surge.

“We’re playing desperately – especially on defense,” Davis said. “And it shows.”

After the win, Redick congratulated James (57,471 career regular-season minutes) for passing Abdul-Jabbar (57,446 minutes) as the regular-season record holder outside the locker room. James’ teammates didn’t react so warmly to his latest milestone.

“They told me I was fucking old and stuff,” James said, smiling and laughing.

It wasn’t lost on him that he was breaking regular-season playing time 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 to continue to put myself in the 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.”

The Lakers don’t have much time to enjoy their win as they face the Kings again on Saturday afternoon as part of the two-game road trip. But James, exhausted after spinning and flying across the floor, said he would make the most of this downtime.

“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.”

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(Photo of Anthony Davis and LeBron James: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)