After the Lakers started their season with back-to-back wins for the first time since 2010, LeBron James stood in front of his locker and said the key to their season would be Anthony Davis leading the way more often than not.

“It’s very important that he is the main focal point for us every night,” James said defiantly on Friday. “We know what he will do defensively, but offensively we have to find him in multiple places on the floor throughout the game. And we did that in two games.”

So about game 3…

With the Lakers blowing a 15-point lead and the Sacramento Kings doing what they always seem to do with their rivals, James reminded everyone that he too can be a focal point.

In four minutes of near-perfect basketball from the 39-year-old Lakers star, he scored 14 points and assisted on two more. The play, which occurred during a 21-0 run early in the fourth quarter, pushed the Lakers to another win, 131-127 over the Kings.

“What can you say to just get that performance to start LeBron’s fourth?” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “We have all been fortunate to have watched his greatness for so long and the fact that he can continue to do this is just insane. It’s actually insane.”

James finished with 32 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists. His play early in the fourth quarter put the Lakers in position to beat the Kings for the first time since Jan. 7, 2023.

“I had a rhythm, made my outside shots and got a few in the paint,” James said. “I got a backdoor from (D’Angelo Russell) that worked well. So just trying to see what I had might help us get this back-to-back over the hump.

And the other center, Davis, closed out the game.

As Sacramento pushed back against the James-led run, Davis re-entered the game and continued his early season dominance. He attacked Domantas Sabonis at the rim and iced the game with a 3-pointer and a split trip to the free-throw line, his only miss in the fourth quarter of a 31-point night.

Davis and James combined for all 11 shots in the fourth quarter, combining to score 30 points in the quarter.

“Just when you think he’s slowing down, man, he keeps showing the world why he’s the best,” Davis said of James. “To continue that trajectory, he was basically looking at the bench and trying to get out of the game. We told him, ‘You can’t figure it out.’ He comes out and hits another three. He continues to amaze us all because we just know what he is capable of and what he can do.

All five starters finished in double figures, with Rui Hachimura scoring 18 points with nine rebounds, Austin Reaves adding 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists, and D’Angelo Russell contributing 16 points and five assists.

Before the game, Redick acknowledged that the sample size hasn’t come close to reaching meaningful levels early in the season. Still, he was encouraged by the Lakers’ low turnover.

Then the Lakers coughed it up 19 times, leading to 25 Sacramento points.

But just like in wins against Western Conference contenders Minnesota and Phoenix, the Lakers found other ways to turn things in their favor.

They grabbed 13 more rebounds than the Kings and finished with four more shots despite turning the ball over five more times than Sacramento. And while Sabonis had a triple-double with 29 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, and De’Aaron Fox had 28 and 10 assists, James and the Lakers’ stars were simply better.

“When you operate from a place of gratitude, you generally sometimes have a sense of surreality. And I’ve certainly experienced that many times over many days as head coach of the Lakers,” Redick said. “And tonight was a surreal moment to see (and) coach him.”

The Lakers now embark on a five-game trip, starting Monday in Phoenix with stops in Cleveland, Toronto, Detroit and Memphis before returning to Los Angeles.