There was no suspense this time around for the Lakers as LeBron James outright confirmed what most would have suspected. After Tuesday’s win over the Pistons, LeBron told reporters that he would sit out against the Jazz on the second night of a back-to-back.

LeBron did play the most recent back-to-back against both the Nuggets and Pelicans at the end of last week, but sat out the back end of the team’s back-to-back against the Hawks and Celtics.

Prior to that, he had sat out the team’s two of the team’s three previous back-to-backs in December. In short, it’s not out of the ordinary for LeBron to sit on back-to-backs.

The Lakers have a bit more breathing room that might lend him to sit out. Tuesday’s win moved them to three games over .500 for the first time since December.

Without him, the Lakers are 3-2 this season but did win their most recent game he sat against the Celtics. LeBron has sat a road game in Utah, that coming on Jan. 13 when the Lakers lost by seven on a night when Anthony Davis had a triple-double but struggled to 5-21 shooting. D’Angelo Russell had 39 points in that game.

Utah is a side competing directly with the Lakers in the playoff seedings. After Tuesday’s game, the Lakers are in the No. 9 seed, 2.5 games above the Jazz. The Lakers also moved to within two games of the Kings after their loss as well and are just one game above the Warriors, showing how tight the playoff/play-in race is with the All-Star break near.

A win in Utah would be huge for many reasons, especially if it comes sans LeBron.