The big story coming out of the Los Angeles Lakers’ victory over the Utah Jazz was LeBron James making his season debut.
James didn’t focus much on scoring, finishing with just 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting, but he was outstanding as a facilitator as he dished out a game-high 12 assists with just one turnover.
The effect LeBron had by just being out on the court was obvious as well and overall Lakers head coach JJ Redick felt he played a strong game in his first outing of the season.
“I just thought he played with the right spirit, very unselfish all night,” Redick said of James. “Was a willing passer, didn’t force it. Took his drives and his shots when they were there. The defense is gonna pay attention to him, particularly when he has the ball in the post, particularly when he is putting pressure on the rim and I just thought he made a lot of great decisions tonight. Really good to have him back.”
Getting a win in LeBron’s season debut was also important and things didn’t start out too well for the Lakers when they came out flat and the Jazz lit them up from deep. Redick mentioned how difficult the Jazz are to guard and especially Lauri Markkanen, but felt the Lakers responded well to the coaches challenging them at halftime.
“We challenged the guys at halftime,” Redick added. “They had 71, it was 16 over what was the expected score. They made some tough shots in the first half, but the challenge was to guard and, up until the last three and a half minutes we held him to 36 for that half. That’s a credit to the entire group. And then you brought up the passing to Jake [LaRavia] and Deandre [Ayton], but I thought during that run, to end the third, start the fourth, it was, it was [Marcus] Smart, it was Jake [LaRavia], it was Jaxson [Hayes], it was Gabe [Vincent] hitting a couple big threes like our four guys off the bench really helped us during that stretch.”
It was undoubtedly a team effort and the Lakers bench stepped up big, changing the energy of the game in the first half and as they made their run to pull away late in the third quarter. Most important in Redick’s eyes was that the Lakers remained poised throughout the slow start and is looking forward to building off this win.
“After the game, just waiting on the guys to get back in the locker room, I think the word we were using as a coaching staff was our poise as a group,” Redick said. “Not overreacting, not pulling apart, problem solving all that stuff in real time. And just continuing to play. That at times was missing last year and for us to get that on the first night was really good. Doesn’t mean we’re gonna be perfect, again; it goes back to the farmer thing. You gotta water this thing every day. But it’s good to see first game back with everybody healthy, just a collective spirit, a collective pull, all in the right direction.”
The camaraderie and chemistry with this Lakers team is excellent and it is apparent that the entire roster has bought in and are locked in together to push towards their ultimate goal.
LeBron James discusses how he felt physically in Lakers season debut
Just as important as LeBron James’ performance in his first game of this season was how he felt afterwards and the Lakers’ superstar discussed that following the win.
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