LOS ANGELES — Uh-oh. The rest of the NBA might be getting a little nervous.

It’s understandable. The Lakers have won nine of their last 10 games, including a demonstrative 116-97 victory Saturday over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Crypto.com Arena.

The defense was crisp. The offense was rolling, and another strong team was taken out by the suddenly strong Lakers.

D’Angelo Russell got the Lakers started with five 3-pointers in the first half, while Anthony Davis and LeBron James took it from there to move the Lakers into eighth place in the jam-packed Western Conference standings, half a game ahead of Sacramento.

“I think we’re just having fun,” said Davis, who made sure the Cavaliers didn’t have much fun Saturday. “We understand the moment. We’re just making the best of it and having fun.”

Eighth place is not where the Lakers (45-33) wanted to be with a week left in the regular season, but there’s still time to move up to seventh and maybe even sixth over their final four games.

Sacramento and New Orleans are both fighting injuries on their rosters. Sixth-place Phoenix has a brutal final week schedule-wise.

There’s just enough of a window for the Lakers to improve their position in the standings. Not bad for a team that hadn’t been above ninth place in the West since Dec. 29.

“Just keep stacking, keep building,” Davis said. “We can’t look at, ‘We’re eighth in [the West], we’ve got [four] games left.’ No. One game at a time and we’ll build from that.”

Davis thoroughly dominated the Cavaliers’ defensive-minded front court, totaling 22 points, 13 rebounds, six blocked shots and three steals. James put up his typically memorable numbers too — 24 points and 12 assists.

Then there was the defense.

The Lakers forced 18 turnovers and held Cavaliers All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell to 10 points on four-for-13 shooting, continuing some of the work they showed on a commendable 5-1 run on a road trip that ended a few days earlier. Cleveland guard Darius Garland scored 26 points but needed 25 shots to get there.

Lakers Coach Darvin Ham liked what he saw.

“Forcing people to make shots, forcing people to make turnovers,” Ham said. “That’s where we’ve got to hang our hat going forward. And the defense helps the offense…It helps your break and allows you to get into a good rhythm offensively.”

The Lakers lapsed briefly in the third quarter as a nine-point halftime lead turned into a 73-69 deficit. But the Cavaliers were stymied from there. The Lakers held a team under 100 for the second time in as many weeks, a modern miracle in today’s high-flying NBA.

“We just kept getting stops, kept getting stops and were able to break it open in the third.” Davis said. “We’re covering for each other, we’re talking. Everybody…we’re all stepping up defensively.”

The Lakers don’t have much time to rest. They play the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena. It’s a potential first-round matchup if the Lakers keep playing the way they are now.

And at this rate, who would doubt them?