LeBron James couldn’t play, but it didn’t matter.
Dennis Schröder sat out too. The Lakers shrugged it off.
Anthony Davis led a charged-up effort in the Lakers’ inspired 93-89 victory Monday over the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center.
Davis scored 25 points as the Lakers rediscovered their defensive edge and took sole possession of fifth place in the Western Conference.
The timing couldn’t have been better for a franchise that appeared to be reeling after three consecutive losses to sub-.500 teams. Now they hold a half-game edge over Dallas for fifth place and a one-game lead over Portland.
The Lakers lost almost all of a 14-point fourth-quarter edge but Davis scored on a running floater with 42 seconds left. Then Talen Horton-Tucker successfully converted an, uh, adventurous trip to the basket to give the Lakers a four-point lead.
Davis sealed the victory by moving quickly to block Facundo Campazzo’s three-point shot with 7.5 seconds left.
It was the best Davis looked in six games since returning from a two-month layoff because of a sore Achilles’ tendon.
“I know that the team’s going to rely on me more," without James and Schröder, Davis said. "I just made the effort to come out and play with pace.”
The Lakers (37-28) needed all the help they could get without James (sprained ankle) and Schröder, who could miss at least another week because of Covid-19 health and safety protocols.
Marc Gasol was up to the task Monday. He replaced an ineffective Andre Drummond and finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and solid defense against NBA MVP candidate Nikola Jokic.
Gasol also made three of four three-point attempts and, for good measure, found Wesley Matthews with a length-of-court pass for a well-earned fourth-quarter basket.
Gasol has been in and out of the rotation over the past few weeks but made the most of his 17 minutes Monday.
“Marc Gasol’s a winner. He understands what it takes to win at a high level,” Lakers Coach Frank Vogel said.
Gasol might have already uncorked the best analogy of the month, comparing himself afterward to Winston Wolfe, the character played by Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction. Wolfe was a professional fixer, so to speak, cleaning up a variety of messes — some of them ghastly — whenever called upon.
As for the Nuggets, Jokic scored 32 points but didn’t shoot well, missing 16 of 28 attempts. Denver didn’t show much scoring punch beyond that.
Michael Porter Jr. had 19 points and JaVale McGee (10 points) was Denver’s only other player with double-figure scoring.
The Lakers woke up Monday morning with the looming possibility of taking part in the play-in tournament in two weeks. It would be an unwanted intrusion during a potential week off between the end of the regular season and the start of the first round of the playoffs.
But the Lakers’ play of late — a 1-6 skid before Monday — put them in jeopardy of finishing outside the West’s top six teams and into the cauldron of the play-in tournament.
They still have work to do to avoid an unnecessary extra game or two, but Monday was a good step.