CHARLOTTE, N.C. >> The Lakers’ Monday night matchup against the Charlotte Hornets was the kind of game that has plagued them for most of the season.

They’ve shown the tendency to play with greater intensity against teams higher in the standings, such as their back-to-back victories over the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, but not bring that same focus against inferior opponents.

The Lakers, for the most part, made sure that wasn’t the case this time, beating the Hornets, 124-118, at Spectrum Center to close out their Grammy road trip at 4-2 and move multiple games over .500 (27-25) for the first time since Dec. 28 and build some much-needed momentum.

Whether the Lakers will be the same team when they return to the floor Thursday night after the NBA trade deadline remains uncertain as rumors continue to swirl around the in-season tournament champions.

When asked if they have the right personnel in the locker room to win the NBA title, LeBron James replied, “that’s not a question for me. I love what we have in the locker room and that is all I worry about. It isn’t like, ‘I can’t stand you.’ I don’t get caught up in that.”

James (26 points, seven assists), Anthony Davis (26 points, 15 rebounds, 11 assists, three blocked shots) and D’Angelo Russell (28 points, six assists) all played significant roles as the Lakers shot 64% from the field while building a 74-58 halftime lead on Monday.

James had several highlight-reel moments in the opening half, driving past P.J. Washington and dunking over 7-foot center Nick Richards for a three-point play. James had another baseline drive for a high-flying two-handed jam and also fed Davis for an alley-oop dunk.

The Lakers had 21 assists on their 29 field goals in the first two quarters.

“Super fun,” Davis said of the first half. “Guys are making shots. We’re playing the right way. Swinging the basketball. Getting stops. It’s who we are. It’s who we want our identity to be.

“It doesn’t always seem to happen that way, like, kinda at the end of the third and most of the fourth. But when we’re playing freely and fun and playing with pace, sharing the basketball, then it’s fun to watch from the sidelines on the bench, but also fun to be on the court and be a part of it.”

They extended the lead to 80-60 early in the third quarter and 98-77 late in the third, but then they took their foot off the gas, allowing the Hornets (10-39) to go on a 9-2 run to close the quarter, which cut the margin to 100-86 going into the fourth.

The Lakers became jump-shot happy early in the fourth, missing a lot of those looks as the Hornets trimmed the deficit to 10.

And by the time the Lakers turned the intensity back up, the Hornets had found their rhythm offensively.

Brandon Miller (33 points on 13-for-25 shooting, four steals), the No. 2 pick in last June’s draft, scored 10 consecutive points in a 1 1/2-minute stretch in the fourth to cut the Lakers’ lead to 117-113 with just two minutes remaining. Miller, who scored a career-high 35 points in the Hornets’ home loss to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday, is averaging 23.6 on 49% shooting (40.9% from 3-point range) over his last 11 games.

“He’s here for a reason,” James said of Miller. “Just continue to get better and better. Love what I’ve seen from him at this stage in his career.”

After a James three-point play, Miles Bridges (career-high 41 points) had an and-one layup of his own to cut the deficit back to 120-116.

Davis, who achieved his third career triple-double before the fourth quarter, blocked a Bridges 3-point attempt with 33 seconds left to seal the victory, with Austin Reaves (nine points, 11 assists) making a pair of free throws with the Hornets intentionally fouling to give the Lakers a 122-116 lead and eventual victory.

“We dropped our guard a little bit,” coach Darvin Ham said. “Our offense kind of stalled out, we turned the ball over way more than I would like down the stretch. But all of that said, we kept fighting, making big defensive plays when we needed to, making plays downhill to the rim when we needed to try to pull this one out and ultimately did pull it out.”

Ham added: “Six games, 12 days, to go 4-2 on this trip, we’re thankful.”

The Lakers finished with 36 assists.

Monday’s victory marked their first three-game win streak since early December.

“When we put our minds to it, we can beat any team in this league,” Davis said of the trip. “We (lost) two (in Houston and Atlanta) we felt like we should’ve won. Maybe won two that the people in Nevada thought we should lose.

“When we buckle down defensively and play the right way, play Laker basketball, then we’re a tough team to beat. We’re always going to fight. Don’t like how this one slipped away from us, but we ended up getting it done. But very confident in this group and what we’re able when we put our minds to it.”

Davis was simply too much to contain for a Hornets team severely lacking height with center Mark Williams still out with a back injury.

“He’s seen just about everything,” Ham said of the double-teams Davis has faced and beaten. “Just the film study, the breakdowns we go through, him being vocal, him being communicative in terms of what he’s seeing, and where he needs guys to be positioned so he can make the right reads. He’s been doing all the homework he needs to do, and so that’s why you see the top results.”

The next time the Lakers play, when they host the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena, will be after the league’s noon PT trade deadline earlier that day.

“A lot of that stuff is beyond our control in terms of playing the ‘what if’ game,” Ham said. “What if guys are healthy? What if you have this person on your team instead of that person? I’ve been saying it all year, we’ve been inconsistent but what we have in our locker room currently, we feel like can really compete at a high level and when we’re right, and being right means we’re (defensively) focused, we’re organized offensively and everybody to a man and collectively is competing.

“Just nothing else, not worrying about mistakes, not worrying about touches, not worrying about rotations, it’s just worrying about doing my part to get a win. We’ve seen that over the last three games. And saw it in Golden State (in the) double-overtime game (to begin the trip). When we play at that level, we have more than enough in our locker room. You can’t get your feelings involved. It’s just a fact. And the nature of the business is to try to get better, when and if you can. That’s just it. It’s the business of basketball. But as far as where we are now, what we were able to do to finish out this trip, no doubt in my mind that we got pieces that will do great things for us and play at a high level for us.”