LeBron James Makes Regular-Season Debut With The Lakers: Three Takeaways

LeBron James played his regular-season game with the Los Angeles Lakers in Portland on Thursday night and started off his scoring with the team with a bang.

LeBron James Scores 26 Points In Lakers’ Season Opener

The 33-year-old forward threw down a dunk for his first points. James finished with a team-high 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting and also had six assists and 12 rebounds in the Lakers’ 128-119 loss to the Trail Blazers. This marked Portland’s 16th consecutive victory over the Lakers.

Here are three takeaways from The King’s first regular-season night with his new team:

LeBron struggled from 3-point range

James was undoubtedly not as sharp from beyond the arc as he usually is. He went 0-for-4 from 3-point range. However, he was playing against a team that has reached the playoffs for five straight years. It could have simply been that the forward was feeling some jitters from adjusting to a new group of teammates and was thus not as focused when it came to long-distance shots. Then again, the Lakers as a whole went 0-for-15 from beyond the arc during one stretch.

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LeBron committed too many turnovers

The King logged six turnovers on Thursday night. Could this have just been him not being familiar enough with his opponents? Only time will tell whether James commits the same number of turnovers in future games. In all likelihood, he won’t.

LeBron still knows how to jump and dunk

James has still got it in this department. He had two big dunks on Thursday, the first of which came with 9:21 remaining in the first quarter, his first point with the team. After the Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard countered with his own dunk, James added yet another one shortly afterwards.

The Lakers next host Houston on Saturday at 10:30 p.m. EST.