LeBron James' most important play in tonight's 119-110 Los Angeles Lakers win over the Dallas Mavericks wasn't his cross-court pass to Danny Green that led to the tying three-pointer. It wasn't his thunderous fast-break dunk in the fourth quarter, either. It was a relatively innocuous first-quarter post-up by James' teammate, Anthony Davis. 

Davis, a 6-foot-10 center with arms roughly the length of the state of Delaware, has been sensational so far this season. Through a series of unfortunate events, he has the ball in good post position against perhaps the worst defensive player on Dallas' roster, 6-foot-6 Tim Hardaway Jr. Sensing the problem, Maxi Kleber leaves his man to help Hardaway against Davis. And then, this happens. 

Kleber, ostensibly in an effort to prevent the Lakers from scoring, decided to leave LeBron James open, thinking that his efforts might be better used elsewhere. They weren't. James glided into one of his easiest layups of the season. Kleber was clearly scarred by the experience. On the aforementioned cross-court pass that led to the tying 3-pointer, Kleber scampered away from Green in the corner to help against James at the basket despite the quickly expiring clock and the three-point margin on the scoreboard. 

In the grand scheme of things, an easy layup in the first quarter usually won't amount to much. In this game, every point was crucial. The Mavericks, or at least a player wearing a Mavericks uniform, made the calculated decision to allow James a chance at those two points to deny Davis that same chance. Based on their play so far this season, that decision is almost justifiable. 

Through four games, James was averaging his fewest points since his rookie season, and he was doing so without another perimeter scorer siphoning off shot attempts. He was shooting below 50 percent from the field for only the second time this decade. His 9.5 assists per game were certainly impressive, but without a traditional point guard in the starting lineup, they could be attributed to circumstance as much as anything else. 

For the first time, this season has provided legitimate statistical evidence suggesting that James is beginning to decline. In combination with the anecdotal evidence last season's injury and lottery appearance provided, Kleber had at least some reason to believe that leaving James to help on Davis was a sensible choice. Other players are probably going to make the same choice at some point or another. The boogeyman that once terrified every defender in the NBA looked mortal through the season's first week.

We all know how this story ends. James wins the battle by making the easy layup. He wins the war by coming back from a 15-point deficit to win the game, and doing so with by far his best statistical line of the season. When it was all said and done, he finished with 39 points, 16 assists, and 12 rebounds. In 17 years, he had never posted a statistical line hitting all three of those benchmarks. LeBron, it seems, still has a few tricks up his sleeve. 

Games like this are going to be few and far between during the regular season. James will turn 35 next month. He has Davis on his team to carry the night-to-night load, and the Lakers are off to an impressive 4-1 start. They aren't going to need him to drop 39-16-12 every night in February and March. 

But on that one play, a (fairly good) Mavericks defender acted as if James was no longer capable of having that kind of game at all. He probably won't be the last player to do so, and when the Lakers hit an inevitable rough patch when the schedule gets harder later in the season, he will be inundated with stories about how he just doesn't have it anymore. 

When those stories come, remember what happened to Kleber when he doubted LeBron. Remember what happened to a Mavericks team that had dominated the Lakers before that play, and how James blew them out of the water afterward. Remember that although James might not play this way every night, this game was proof positive that he can play this way on any night, and when the playoffs roll around and he has nothing left to save himself for, he is probably going to play this way most nights. The best player in the NBA might spend most of the season in hibernation, but when LeBron needs to summon him, he is still in there ready to lay waste to any who dare doubt the greatness of King James.