LOS ANGELES_Danny Green took the microphone and introduced himself.
"For those of you who don't know me, I'm Danny Green," he said, to cheers from the Staples Center crowd.
He got even bigger cheers for his closer.
"We'll do better than last year," Green said. "Go Lakers."
Friday night was not the first time the Lakers had played in front of their fans in a meaningful game _ that happened Tuesday when Kawhi Leonard's address before the Clippers' home opener was greeted by boos from encroaching Lakers fans.
But it was the first Lakers home game of the season, and they rewarded the fans with a convincing win. The Lakers beat the Utah Jazz, 95-86, evening their record after a 10-point loss to their city rivals on Tuesday. Throughout the game, the Lakers looked every bit like what they are: a team still figuring out how best to use its elite star power and role players. And a team with the ability to run away from some of the better teams in the NBA's Western Conference.
LeBron James led all scorers with 32 points and neared a triple-double with 10 assists and seven rebounds. Anthony Davis added 21 points and seven rebounds, some of it while playing center, and the Lakers led by as many as 19.
"We'll take it game by game in terms of figuring out how much we want to go to AD at the five and be balanced," coach Frank Vogel said.
Vogel used the same starting lineup from the first game, with James and Davis playing alongside JaVale McGee, Danny Green and Avery Bradley. Davis played the entire first quarter and scored 12 points. The Lakers came out of it leading by seven, already giving themselves more second-chance opportunities than they had against the Los Angeles Clippers.
By halftime, they had scored eight second-chance points. Dwight Howard grabbed six rebounds in the first half, three of them offensive.
"He didn't get the ball one time in the low post, because that's not his role here on this team, and he really impacted the game," Vogel said.
But the Jazz were starting to close the gap. They outscored the Lakers by one point in the second quarter. Without veteran point guard Rajon Rondo, the Lakers relied heavily on James to fill the role of facilitator once again. Vogel wanted to see that change.
He opened the third quarter with a new lineup, removing McGee and adding point guard Alex Caruso. In that lineup, Davis played center, which Vogel thought would open up the painted area more. That unit orchestrated a 9-0 run to open the second half.
"We were shooting 34% offensively and Rudy (Gobert) is a problem," Vogel said of the Jazz center. " ... If you have another center out there rolling to the basket he can ... clog things up. Anthony and I talked about it. He was all for it and wanted to do it.
"Offensively, LeBron was being asked to do too much. We put another small in there, Alex Caruso. ... Gave us a burst offensively and we didn't lose anything defensively."
The Lakers outscored the Jazz 31-18 in the third quarter. Guard Troy Daniels blossomed in the quarter, scoring nine of his 15 points and showing the shooting ability for which the Lakers signed him. He finished making half of his eight three-point attempts on a night the rest of the Lakers were four for 18.
"He's the kind of player you want to put around LeBron James and Anthony Davis," Vogel said of Daniels.
They pulled away enough in the fourth quarter that two-way players Zach Norvell Jr. and Kostas Antetokounmpo received playing time.
Donovan Mitchell scored 24 points to lead the Jazz, who had just two other players in double figures. They committed 22 turnovers in dropping to 1-1.
