LOS ANGELES — As the Lakers jogged into the locker room at the break, trailing by one, public address announcer Lawrence Tanter bellowed an announcement to the Crypto.com Arena crowd.

“Draymond Green has been assessed a technical foul,” he said to cheers from the home faithful.

Hardly a rarity for the Warriors forward, known for his back-and-forth verbal jabs on the court, aggressive defensive style, who ranks seventh all-time in technical fouls received in NBA history. But on Saturday night, the free point from Austin Reaves to start the second half set up a third-quarter run – heralded by LeBron James’ 3-pointer and back-to-back converted and-ones – to spurt a 12-2 run that closed in a 105-99 victory, the Lakers’ third consecutive win.

“They’re a really good defense, and they do a really good job of pressuring you and being disruptive,” Coach JJ Redick said. “And I don’t know – I don’t want – this is not a negative, but like junking the game up with changing defenses. Draymond [Green] just naturally junks the game up because he’s so smart; he sniffs everything out.”

“I thought the guys, as the game progressed, did a really nice job.”

James closed the game with 20 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds, while forward Rui Hachimura provided efficiency – in place of Luka Doncic, who is “day-to-day” with a mild left hamstring strain, according to Coach JJ Redick – by shooting 7 of 10 from the field (4 of 5 from beyond the arc) with 18 points.

The Warriors (28-25) were without star guard Stephen Curry and newly-acquired forward Kristaps Porzingis, whom Golden State coach Steve Kerr said would likely sit out through the All-Star break before making his debut after being traded from Atlanta on Thursday.

In line with most of their defensive performance in recent games, prioritizing zone defense usage, the Lakers (32-19) held the Warriors to under 112 points, their fourth time in five games doing so and the first time holding their opposition under 100 since Nov. 15 against the Milwaukee Bucks.

“If you have success early with anything in the communication department, it continues to flow well,” Reaves said of the team’s defense. “Zone’s been good. We’ve … communicated at a higher level. That’s what it takes to play a good zone.”

Despite leading at halftime, the Warriors were shooting a woeful 18.5% from beyond the arc – a clip which eventually improved a 27.5% by the game’s end, including a fourth-quarter Warriors run that brought the score within one point after forward Gus Santos sunk a 3-pointer, one of Golden State’s six 3s in the final period.

Midway through the first quarter, newly-acquired guard/forward Luke Kennard made his debut for the Lakers, sinking a 3-pointer – of which he made 49.7% of long-range looks entering the game – off an assist from Reaves.

Stopping the aforementioned Warriors’ fourth-quarter comeback attempt, Kennard had seemingly all the time in the world for a corner 3-pointer, later revealed to be an after-timeout play (ATO) that Redick drew up specifically for his new 3-point threat to convert.

Forward/center Maxi Kleber halted Warriors guard D’Anthony Melton with a hammer screen, allowing Reaves to find Kennard. His shot gave the Lakers a four-point lead with 5:47 remaining in the game. Fewer than two minutes later, Reaves sank a pair of free throws to provide the Lakers with a 100-88 lead.

“When you have a play drawn up for you, especially coming out of the timeout, you want to execute it,” Kennard said. “I thought for us, as a team, the execution was big.”

Kennard played 26 minutes off the bench, recording 10 points on 4 of 7 shooting.

“[We] just responded well, the Luke three was big, but then we were able to get multiple stops in a row,” Redick said. “… I just thought the guys played really good basketball and you could see with Luke in particular, just his ability to just make reads and make plays.”

Said James of Kennard, who broke his state high school scoring record in Ohio, while also being an alumnus of the four-time MVP’s AAU basketball team:

“It’s going to help us have another ball handler, for sure. But then his shooting, how elite his shooting is, is going to help us as well, tremendously.”

Center Deandre Ayton was a late scratch for Saturday, being downgraded to out with right knee soreness before the game.

“He went out for his shooting stretch (warmups), and, you know, just didn’t feel completely comfortable with it,” Redick said postgame of Ayton. “I don’t think there’s any reason to believe it’s anything but day to day.”

The switch pushed forward/center Maxi Kleber into increased minutes for the second consecutive game after having filled in for Jaxson Hayes in the bench unit during the 7-footer’s one-game suspension.

“I think the group, the last two games, and Maxi’s certainly led on this, but the group, the last two games, just doing what is necessary to win that game,” Redick said.

Hayes spoke to the media for the first time since his one-game suspension without pay for pushing the Washington Wizards’ mascot last week during a pre-game incident. The third-year Lakers’ post said he apologized to the team and the mascot, saying that the mascot had stepped on him, causing his reaction.

“We all try to get ourselves in the mental space, in the physical space, and go ready and go out to play a game, and when someone – I’m stretching and somebody steps on my foot, might have lost it, should have handled it a different way. And you know, we live and we learn.”