EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The Lakers’ friendly January schedule, laden with home games, took a brief detour Saturday in Salt Lake City.

Making things difficult, the Utah Jazz had been on a torrid winning streak, capturing 10 of their last 12 games. And, can’t forget to mention, Lakers forward LeBron James sat out because of a sore ankle.

What You Need To Know

  • With Lebron James out of the lineup in Salt Lake City, the Lakers fell to the Jazz 132-125 despite a season-high 39 points from D’Angelo Russell
  • Anthony Davis logged a triple-double but was also oddly inefficient. He had 15 points, 15 rebounds and a career-high 11 assists
  • The Lakers led by four at halftime but then lost ground in a choppy third quarter filled with fouls and free throws as the full-strength Jazz slowly pulled away
  • They are a particularly concerning 5-12 since winning the in-season tournament in Las Vegas, the defense has been hit hard the last three games, surrendering 131 points in a win over Toronto and 127 in the loss to Utah

Trouble for the Lakers?

It didn’t look like it at first but then they yielded in the end of a 132-125 loss, continuing to struggle since winning the in-season tournament a month ago and staying firmly lodged in 11th place in the Western Conference. The Lakers led by four at halftime but then lost ground in a choppy third quarter filled with fouls and free throws as the full-strength Jazz slowly pulled away.

“I thought we played two-thirds of a really good basketball game, three-fourths, whatever you want to say,” Lakers Coach Darvin Ham said. “Then the fouls got away from us.”

The Jazz made 36 of 39 free-throw attempts.

“I felt like we had some ticky-tack [fouls],” said Ham, who turned to his video replay coaches on the bench after some questionable calls. “They kept telling me not to challenge. Apparently we must have been fouling.”

The Lakers, who made 20 of 24 free-throw attempts, fell to 19-21 overall. They are a particularly concerning 5-12 since winning the in-season tournament in Las Vegas. The defense has been hit hard the last three games, surrendering 131 points in a win over Toronto, 127 in a loss to Utah and a too-generous 68 points in the second half Saturday against Utah.

It wasn’t entirely a lost outing for the Lakers. D’Angelo Russell returned to the starting lineup for the first time since Dec. 21 and delivered a season-high 39 points and eight assists. He made six three-pointers and was the only dependable scorer Saturday.

“I thought he was phenomenal. He really did a good job of setting the tone for us,” Ham said. “He made some high-level plays, high-level shots.”

Anthony Davis logged a triple-double but was also oddly inefficient. He had 15 points, 15 rebounds and a career-high 11 assists — solid stats, to be sure — but made only five of 21 shots for an un-Davis-like 23.8%. He also committed six turnovers while facing a slew of double-teams.

“Didn’t make shots,” Davis said tersely after the game. “Everyone did their job except me….This one’s on me.”

After scoring 41 against Toronto earlier this week, Davis had only 13 points against Phoenix in a blowout loss Thursday and a poor shooting night against Utah.

“He’s hard on himself,” Ham said. “He had some shots that he took that normally go down. Had some unfortunate turnovers.

“It’s unfortunate. Bad timing actually, with LeBron not being in the mix. But kudos to him. He continued to fight as long as he could.”

Lakers forward Rui Hachimura scored 17 points after missing almost two weeks because of a calf injury. Utah (21-20) won its fifth consecutive game thanks in part to 29 points from Lauri Markkanen and 27 from Colin Sexton.

The Lakers return to Crypto.com Arena for their next six games, including challenging ones Monday against Oklahoma City and Wednesday against Dallas.