With Devin Booker and Bradley Beal on the sidelines, the Phoenix Suns came into Thursday's game at the Crypt at a decided disadvantage. But for most of the game, the Suns were ahead. Down by 12 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Lakers had to play true shut-down defense over the final 12 minutes, outscoring the Suns 28-11 to get the win.

LeBron James, whose minutes the Lakers would like very much to limit as much as possible, blew through the team's 28-32 minute target, playing the whole fourth quarter en route to 35 minutes overall. Still nothing extreme, but definitely more than they're aiming for. And on the one hand, keeping the minutes down did allow the Lakers to use him more liberally down the stretch. Although you could also argue that the light minutes were a reason they were down 12. Either way, LeBron was excellent down the stretch.

Anthony Davis, meanwhile, clearly figured out what the problem was after a scoreless second half in Denver on Tuesday. Thursday night, he had 19 second half points en route to a 30/12/2/3/3 stat line. These are games that simultaneously silence and energize his doubters.

Those guys needed to produce, because while the Lakers defense came up large, the offense wasn't good, and the supporting cast particularly struggled. Austin Reaves wasn't particularly good, Rui Hachimura was worse and while guys like D'Angelo Russell and Gabe Vincent found ways to contribute, they were a combined 1-12 from 3-point range, which undercuts a lot of those accomplishments.

Meanwhile, as a team the Lakers were 5-29 from downtown.

Finally, the Lakers got a ton of mileage out of a lineup many (including the hosts) thought might not work - LeBron, Davis and Christian Wood playing together. Is it something they can replicate? Something that might only work against teams like Phoenix (Thursday's version at least) that don't have the firepower to press potential mismatches? How far should Darvin Ham go to find out the answers to these questions?

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: The Lakers grind out a win. Resilient... but concerning?

SEGMENT 2: Anthony Davis bounces back with a huge game, while LeBron plays the entire fourth quarter.

SEGMENT 3: Can LeBron, Davis and Wood play together after all?

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