The Los Angeles Lakers, a very good basketball team, squeaked past the Memphis Grizzlies, a bad basketball team, 109-108 on Saturday. No big deal, right? Good teams are supposed to beat bad teams. Plus, it's not even December yet. How could this win possibly mean anything?

Well, for starters, it ran the Lakers' record to a league-leading 14-2, which marks the best start ever for a LeBron James team -- besting the Cavs of 2016-17 and 2008-09, along with the 2013-14 Miami Heat, all of which started 13-3.

Also, the Lakers were down by as many as 15 points, making it the fifth time this season they have rallied from a double-digit deficit to win. Double-digit deficits are erased pretty easily in today's game, but for a team that many feared might operate on cruise control during the regular season, it's further proof that the Lakers are on a different kind of mission.

It's not just about a championship six months from now.

It's about proving some people wrong RIGHT NOW.

Perhaps this stems mostly from LeBron, who heard all summer and offseason that he'd been supplanted as the game's premier player. While Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers appear more concerned with pacing themselves, the Lakers are setting their own pace, and right now nobody can keep up.

Saturday also marked the Lakers' seventh "clutch" victory this season, which the NBA defines as a game that's within five points within the final five minutes. In these "clutch" situations, the Lakers have a plus-3.4 point differential, the best mark in the league. So far, you can't beat the Lakers by getting them down big early, or by keeping it close late. In both cases, they have the two best players on the floor.

That was again the case on Saturday. Rookie Ja Morant was fabulous for Memphis, but when push came to shove, the kid is just not ready to go toe to toe with LeBron and Anthony Davis with the game on the line. Few players are. With the Lakers trailing by three with two minutes to play, LeBron and Davis did this on the next three possessions:

That last Davis follow off the LeBron miss was the final bucket for the Lakers, who then created a pair of turnovers in the game's final possessions to hold on. It was validation of yet another early theme of this Lakers team: They LOCK DOWN in money time. Through Saturday, the Lakers have the best defensive rating in the league, by a mile, in fourth quarters.

LeBron finished the game with 30 points, six rebounds and five assists. Davis finished with 22 points and five blocks. LeBron also had five turnovers and didn't get to the free-throw line a single time. Rajon Rondo was pretty good off the bench, but nobody else did much to speak of for the Lakers. The ingredients were there to cash this one in. It was on the road. They clearly didn't have their juice for much of the game. It would've been one of those losses nobody cares about. Chalk it up to a bad night and move on.

But the Lakers aren't doing that so far this season. They aren't taking anything for granted. They're beating the teams they should beat (10-0 against sub-.500 teams). They're winning the games they perhaps should lose. They're not relying on having the best players on the floor, and yet, most nights, they DO have the best players on the floor. That is a deadly, deadly combination for a team that is willing to take the small steps in pursuit of the biggest prize.