Lakers suddenly have a deep roster to pick up the slack when the stars struggle

In their first game back from the one-week hiatus, the Lakers executed James’ directives, defeating the Golden State Warriors 124-111 on Thursday at Crypto.com Arena to improve to 28-32 overall and 3-1 since reshaping the roster with multiple deals at the trade deadline. They remain 13th in the Western Conference but are just 1 1/2 games behind Golden State for the No. 10 seed and final spot in the Play-In Tournament.

In an interesting twist, James, who has a storied track record of backing up his talk with notable performances, didn’t heed his own words this time. He had his worst offensive game of the season, scoring a season-low 13 points on a season-worst 20 percent shooting (5-for-20). In one sequence, he missed four point-blank shot attempts, first blowing a layup in transition and then missing the three subsequent putbacks. He still found ways to impact the game, adding nine rebounds and eight assists, but it was an uncharacteristic performance after such a bold proclamation.