Los Angeles • LeBron James scored 15 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter as the Los Angeles Lakers overcame an injury to Anthony Davis and rallied from a 12-point fourth quarter deficit to defeat the Utah Jazz 106-101 Wednesday night.
Los Angeles trailed 92-80 midway through the fourth quarter before it went on a 19-4 run to snap a three-game losing streak. James had the last 10 points during the rally, including a thunderous dunk off an assist by Russell Westbrook to put the Lakers on top 96-94 with 2:08 remaining.
Mike Conley tied it on a pair of free throws before James put Los Angeles in the lead for good on a 3-pointer with 1:24 left and snap Utah’s six-game winning streak.
James has scored 25 points or more in a career-best 23 straight games.
Donovan Mitchell led Utah with 37 points, including five 3-pointers.
“There is no way we should have lost this game in my opinion. Credit to them. I give credit to where credit is due but we let the game slip in many different circumstances,” Mitchell said. “We played like we were up 40 in the second half and that can’t happen.”
Utah trailed 33-29 3 1/2 minutes in the second quarter before taking the lead with 10 straight points over a two-minute span.
The Jazz’s largest lead was 14 points with three minutes remaining in the third quarter before the Lakers rallied.
“The game tightens up and go to LeBron, and he makes plays,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “But we had plenty of chances to make plays too. We just didn’t, but we put ourselves in that position. It can’t be that easy to give up a 13-point lead. We got to make teams work to come back, and grind. It was too easy.”
Davis went down with 3 minutes to go in the second quarter with a sprained right ankle. The Lakers said X-rays were negative and that he would receive treatment over the All-Star break.
Davis had 17 points in 17 minutes when he was injured. He was down on the court for several minutes before being helped off. Davis — averaging 23.3 points and 9.1 rebounds — has already missed 21 games this season, including 17 due to a knee injury.
Russell Westbrook had 17 points and seven rebounds while Malik Monk added 13 points.
TIP-INS
Jazz: Bojan Bogdanovic scored 15 points and Jordan Clarkson had 13 off the bench. .. Rudy Gay has missed the last five games due to right knee soreness.
Lakers: Los Angeles scored the first 11 points, with six coming from Davis. ... Carmelo Anthony missed his fifth straight game due to a right hamstring strain. Avery Bradley (right knee swelling) and Kendrick Nunn (right knee bone bruise) were also out of the lineup.
UP NEXT
Jazz: Host Dallas on Feb. 25.
