NEW ORLEANS — One night after the Lakers were clicking on all cylinders in their most impressive performance away from Crypto.com Arena, they looked like a team struggling to find answers on Saturday night against the New Orleans Pelicans.

A team struggling to find its collective energy from the jump after beating the Spurs in San Antonio on Friday night.

A team struggling to find an offensive rhythm — especially with their rotation adjusting again because of injuries.

A team struggling to keep the Pelicans, who were also shorthanded, off the offensive glass for significant parts of Saturday.

But in the end, the Lakers overcame the lulls associated with playing on the second night of a back-to-back, scraping together a 104-99 victory over the Pelicans for their fifth consecutive win to put them at 9-4 on the season.

“It’s good to know that you can execute down the stretch, you can make plays down the stretch no matter what the game calls for,” LeBron James said. “(Saturday) was another one of those moments.”

Anthony Davis (31 points, 14 rebounds) and rookie forward Dalton Knecht (career-high 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting, 5 of 10 on 3-pointers) gave the Lakers the boost they needed in the third to overcome a 10-point halftime deficit after trailing by 15 in the second quarter.

But it was James (21 points, seven rebounds, five assists) providing the Lakers with the late-game shotmaking they needed.

After missing his first five 3-pointers and struggling with his shot for most of the night, the 39-year-old James knocked down a catch-and-shoot to put the Lakers up 98-97 with less than two minutes left.

And one night after playing a more off-ball role in crunch time, James controlled the game late, knocking down another 3 out of a pick and roll to put the Lakers up 101-97 with 37 seconds left.

James missed a pull-up two-pointer on the Lakers’ ensuing possession after Jeremiah Robinson-Earl made a layup to cut the Lakers’ deficit to two. Max Christie backtapped an offensive rebound so the Lakers could maintain possession.

“How about Max Christie? Crash of his life from the corner,” coach JJ Redick said. “He guarded his butt off all night. Not a big offensive night and he gets that offensive rebound tip out to kind of seal the win for us. That was huge.”

With the Pelicans forced to foul late, James split a pair of free throws and Knecht made a pair to seal the win for the Lakers.

“Let’s be honest, it wasn’t his best performance going into crunch time,” Redick said. “And unsurprisingly, he delivered. Beyond just LeBron’s crunch time performance, our group, in some ways, that could have been the (Nov. 4 road loss to the Detroit Pistons) for us. We stayed connected. We kept fighting. The resiliency that we showed was really good.”

The Pelicans were led by Brandon Ingram’s 32 points, eight rebounds, four rebounds and three steals. New Orleans was without Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, Trey Murphy, CJ McCollum, Herbert Jones, Jordan Hawkins and Jose Alvarado.