LeBron James‘ regular season debut for the Los Angeles Lakers got off to a thunderous start Thursday night in Portland, but it was Damian Lillard and Nik Stauskas who had the final laugh.
James says the Lakeshow will need time to build chemistry.
Bron finished with 26 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and six turnovers in a 128-119 loss to the Trail Blazers.
“It’s not instant oatmeal. It’s not that fast,” James said. “It takes some time to get that chemistry where you can just close your eyes and know exactly where guys are.”
In this new era, though, some things remained familiar. The Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Lakers 128-119, extending their winning streak over the Lakers to 16 games. This was also the 18th consecutive home opener Portland has won, which is the longest streak in NBA history.
“I liked our fight to get back into the game when we were down double digits, I liked the way we competed at times, I liked the way we shared the ball as well,” James said. “Those were all positive. … There’s some things that we could do better. We can rebound a lot better, we had some turnovers, which I expected. Us just trying to get a feel for one another.”
Related
Kobe Bryant: ‘The Lakers are Going to Surprise a Lot of People’
