The clock was ticking and, as it had been for most of the last two decades of professional basketball, the ball was in the hands of LeBron James.

During the fourth period he tirelessly tried to find ways to score, with the imbalance always going in his favor and for the most part the ball just wasn’t going in. On a crucial possession in the fourth period, the Lakers grabbed one offensive rebound after another, only for more James missed three three-pointers on the same possession.

But it was a style of play that led to championships and earned James a reputation as one of the greatest, if not the best, players of all time. However, it’s not the intended style for JJ Redick’s Lakers.

The Lakers were stuck in it for the entire fourth quarter on Sunday, with another three-pointer closing the door for the Jazz to win. But Utah coach Will Hardy called a late timeout after James missed three shots, and the whistle blew briefly before Collin Sexton scored the game-winning goal.

Coming out of the timeout, the Jazz didn’t look quite as clean as the Lakers escaped with a 105-104 win and began a four-game trip that left a large portion of their roster unavailable.

Anthony Davis scored 33 points, James added 27 on a night in which he missed all nine 3-pointers, and Rui Hachimura scored 13 points for the short-handed Lakers.

The symptoms for those affected are real. D’Angelo Russell and Cam Reddish had illnesses that prevented them from coming to the arena on Sunday. And for Austin Reaves, it was the soreness from a scary fall on Friday that made even standing a bit of a precarious situation.

But the NBA world is unsympathetic. And problems for Reaves, Russell and Reddish meant opportunities for Gabe Vincent, Max Christie and forgotten second-year guard Jalen Hood-Schifino.

Without 40% of their regular rotation (including the injured Jaxson Hayes), the players around James and Davis had no choice but to figure it out.

Vincent scored a season-high 10 points and forced a crucial late turnover when he aggressively defended John Collins in the post.

Reaves’ back injury, which the Lakers are describing as a left pelvic contusion, ended a streak of 129 consecutive regular-season games that also included 21 playoff games, two play-in games and a season finale.

The Lakers play again in Minneapolis on Monday.

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.