LOS ANGELES — Stanley Johnson has only ever been able to plan his future with the Lakers in 10-day stints.

So far, the Lakers have been content to let the 25-year-old former Mater Dei High standout stay on the roster with short-term deals: On Monday morning, he signed his third 10-day contract with the team. Later that night, Johnson gave the Lakers’ front office plenty to think about.

Johnson’s two-way effort exemplified the comeback the Lakers (22-22) completed against the visiting Utah Jazz (29-15), a 101-95 victory that was authored by some of the best defense the Lakers have played all season. The 6-foot-7 forward was key for the bench-driven unit that erased a nine-point Jazz lead with a 19-6 fourth-quarter rally, scoring consecutive field goals for the Lakers during the pivotal stretch.

“I think it feels good doing what I came here to do,” said Johnson, who was thrust into duty on Christmas and has become a fundamental role player since. “I think I came on to bring energy and affect the game in different ways and be kind of like a curveball to what teams are used to and what they’ve seen. And I feel like today was kind of the day I was able to do it.”

On Sunday night, LeBron James apologized via Twitter for the Lakers’ 37-point blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets the previous evening, promising a better effort to come. But it was hard for even the brightest optimist to see a turnaround coming so swiftly after the Lakers had lost three consecutive games while giving up at least 125 points in each defeat.

James decided to not speak to the media after the worst defeat of the season because, ” I didn’t like what was gonna come out of my mouth.” But he did want to tell the fans that he expected more out of himself and the team.

“We just wasn’t playing to our capabilities and we wasn’t giving maximum effort,” he said. “So that starts with me as the leader of the team, and so just taking the onus and letting Laker Nation know. … It was about our fans and the people that ride and die with us every single day. Let them know that I got this and it wouldn’t happen again.”

James was a part of the solution, scoring a team-best 25 points with seven rebounds and seven assists. He drove the lineup that rallied the Lakers back into the game: The Jazz managed just six field goals in the fourth quarter against lineups largely driven by the team’s youngest players.

A huge key was the Lakers got a lot more muscle out of their bench (44 points) than they did Saturday in Denver, when no reserve scored in double figures. The most impressive effort came from Johnson, who started to drive to the rim with purpose in the pivotal fourth: Johnson wound up scoring 10 of his 15 points in the quarter, all between the 8-minute and 5:35-minute mark.

He credited James with tactical advice on how to attack 7-foot-1 Rudy Gobert, the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year. While he spent much of the night fruitlessly wrestling the Utah big man for rebounds and trying to stop his own shots on goal, Johnson got his revenge in the fourth – in no small part due to James setting bull-dozing screens.

“LeBron’s a smart player, so (when he says), ‘Do this,’ OK, I’ll do it. ‘Do this.’ OK, I’ll do it, too,” Johnson said. “That’s just as simple as that went. He saw something.”

With 2½ minutes left, Johnson tossed an assist to Avery Bradley in the corner for a 3-pointer that put the Lakers ahead by six points, another key play in the stretch.

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Johnson, who was 7 for 9 from the field and also had seven rebounds, was one of three reserves to score in double digits, joining Malik Monk (14 points) and Talen Horton-Tucker (11 points). But he’s the only one without a season-long roster spot, which the Lakers could give him when his latest 10-day contract wraps up.

Mike Conley had 20 points and Gobert had 19 points and 16 rebounds for the Jazz, but Utah only shot 36.9% from the floor, flummoxed late by the Lakers’ switch-heavy scheme.

“Our switching was far better tonight than it was in the Denver game,” Vogel said. “That is the biggest area of growth over 24 hours or 48 hours, whatever it has been.”

Russell Westbrook sat out for most of the fourth quarter, but he made an impact at the end, especially with an and-one layup with 40 seconds left that sealed it. He finished with 15 points.

Westbrook did provide one of the most incendiary highlights of the season, rising up for a one-handed dunk over Gobert. As the crowd of 17,283 rose to its feet in awe, Westbrook milked all he could out of it – jawing so much at Gobert that he was whistled for a technical foul.

It was a breath of fresh air for Westbrook, who had not yet recorded a dunk in 2022. But the 33-year-old played it casual when asked about it, and when a reporter alluded to observers wondering if he still had the lift in his legs for poster dunks, Westbrook snickered: “That’s their problem.”

James lingered on the play for his teammate: “He wasn’t going in for a lay-up, or going in for a floater or going for anything else except attacking the shotblocker. That was electrifying. It was big-time. I’ve seen the replay over and over. It was a phenomenal play.”

Overall, Westbrook had another inefficient shooting night, going 5 for 14 from the field and hitting just one of his four 3-point attempts. Arguably his second-best highlight came in the first quarter when he mopped up a courtside wet spot that Donovan Mitchell had slipped on moments before.

Vogel said Westbrook’s playful mood picked up the energy of a team that had been laid low by a three-game losing streak.

“That was an example of ‘Hey, let’s all let go of whatever we’re feeling from a negative standpoint and the clouds that come with losing and all of that,’” Vogel said. “‘Let’s let go of that and bring a positive spirit.’”

Certainly in the wake of that game, the Lakers have a lot more to feel positive about.