LeBron James was electric early but eventually suffered a defeat, 128-119, in his Los Angeles Lakers' regular season debut at the hands of Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers Thursday night.
James eventually finished the night with 26 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and a steal, while Lillard led all scorers with 28 points, six rebounds and four assists. James also had six turnovers, a couple of which featured passes that rolled out of bounds with no teammates close by--clear signs that James and the Lakers are far from a finished product.
With the win, the Blazers extended their home opener winning streak to 18 games, while their head-to-head streak against the Lakers extended to 16 straight wins.
The Portland crowd played its role with "Beat LA" chants sounding out at tip-off, but once the ball was in play, James didn't take long to make his presence felt. Rajon Rondo may have recorded the Lakers' first points of the season, but James made his first basket far more memorable.
James' first basket as a Laker arrived after a steal by the Akron native led to a breakaway slam dunk. James followed up that slam with another emphatic dunk moments later. Both dunks featured emotional outbursts by the 33-year-old.
Riding James' energy, the Lakers jumped out to an early double-digit lead, 25-15.
However, the Blazers refused to get caught up in the sideshow and finished the quarter on a 19-6 run to take a 34-31 lead at the end of the first quarter. James finished his first quarter as a Laker with 13 points on 5-6 shooting, three rebounds, one assist and one steal in nine minutes.
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In the second quarter, Nik Stauskas served a reminder that this game was also his debut with a new team. Stauskas made his first six shots, including four three-pointers to launch up to 16 points in the blink of an eye. The no. 8 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft eventually finished the night with 24 points, which only trailed James and Lillard in the game.
Five minutes into the second quarter, the Blazers had jumped out to their own 10-point lead.
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Moments later, James picked up his third foul. Trailing by double digits, the $164 million man waved off Lakers coach Luke Walton and stayed on the court in a roll of the dice. Over the following two minutes, before James went to the bench, the Lakers managed to trim an 11-point Blazers' advantage to only four points.
The gamble seemingly paid off.
At halftime, the Blazers held a two-point edge with JaVale McGee and Rondo providing necessary offense in the painted area. From three-point land, the Lakers entered the break without a single make from distance in 12 attempts.
In the third quarter, James deferred to his teammates, and Brandon Ingram took the early aggressive offensive lead out of the locker room. Ingram would eventually finish the quarter with 14 points on 7-14 shooting. Notably, Ingram only attempted one shot in the fouth quarter and ended his night with 16 points in 28 minutes.
The Lakers as a whole, meanwhile, continued to struggle from distance until Josh Hart stepped up and finally ended the drought. In the latter stages of the third stanza, Hart finally broke the Lakers' duck from distance.
The Lakers had missed their first 15 three-pointers on the night, but Hart's make gave the Lakers their first lead of the second half at 85-83. The Blazers proceeded to regain the advantage opened up a six-point advantage until Rondo and Hart made back-to-back three-pointers to close the quarter.
Hart's second three-pointer beat the third quarter buzzer and gave the second string sophomore 15 points on 6-9 shooting from the field, along with three steals in 21 meaningful minutes. Hart's third quarter laid the groundwork for more minutes in the fourth quarter, as the second year guard finished the game with 20 points on 8-12 shooting, along with four rebounds, three steals, two blocks and an assist in 27 minutes.
Entering the fourth and final quarter, the Blazers led, 93-91.
Though Lonzo Ball made his first three-pointer of the season in the first half of the fourth quarter, Stauskas continued his hot shooting and helped the Blazers hold a seven-point lead at the halfway point of the final quarter, entering the home stretch.
A minute later, the "Beat LA" chants returned, and CJ McCollum made only his fourth field goal of the night to open up a 10-point advantage with 5:01 remaining in the game. McCollum eventually finished with 21 points in 31 minutes, and 10 of those points arrived in the decisive fourth quarter.
With five minutes remaining, Stauskas led the Blazers with 22 points, while James led all scorers with 24 points. However, James had cooled off after making five of his first six field goal attempts and had only managed three makes in his subsequent nine attempts tot that point.
Staring at a 10-point deficit and a charged up crowd at the Moda Center, James and the Lakers were facing an uphill climb to sneak a debut victory.
A minute later, the Lakers trailed by 11 points with 4:00 showing on the game clock. Moments beyond the 3:00 mark, the Blazers had opened up a 13-point lead, and time seemed to be running out on a possible Lakers' comeback.
Kyle Kuzma and Hart provided a glimmer of hope when their back-to-back three-pointers cut the Blazers' advantage to seven points with 2:06 remaining in the game. The Blazers gave the Lakers a couple opportunities to get closer, but Hart's three-point attempt missed and Lillard stepped up to make a clutch bucket and pressure free throws down the stretch.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit a late three-pointer to bring the Lakers as close as five points with 30.7 seconds remaining, but Lillard didn't have any trouble putting the game to bed from the foul line.
Lillard tabbed 10 points in the final quarter to help lead the Blazers to victory and continued Blazers' dominance of the Lakers.
