REACTION to LeBron James’ season debut 👀 Gives the Lakers ‘WHATEVER’ they need – Green | NBA Today

REACTION to LeBron James’ season debut 👀 Gives the Lakers ‘WHATEVER’ they need – Green | NBA Today

for the home team, the Los Angeles Lakers. They will start at one forward, LeBron James, playing in his first game in this season, the second this game starts. He’ll become the first player in NBA history to play for 23 consecutive seasons. LeBron is back, so let’s put this historic night in perspective when it comes to longevity. Just five players made it 21 seasons in the league. Chris Paul, Kevin Garnett, Durk, Robert Parish, and Kevin Willis. Well, how about 22 seasons, you may ask? Just one name. Half man, half amazing. Vince Carter, who called it a career back in 2020. And after last night, one man stands alone at top this mountain with 23 seasons in the NBA. LeBron James. Hey, welcome to NBA today. I’m Malikica Andrews joined by our senior insider Sham Shiranya and a pair of NBA champs here, Danny Green, Kendrick Perkins, and last night we got to see the return of LeBron. Guys, I I clearly left my voice in Crypto.com Arena. Perk, what did you see? Well, it’s no words to describe what we saw last night, but greatness. But I I will say this, you lost your voice because you was laughing at me cuz I’ve been wearing this jacket every Wednesday. But to the world, let me say this. You’re gonna see this jacket, this finals jacket, OKC, every Wednesday until Wednesday on NBA today until I see Wednesday. Well, whatever you want to call it, till I see otherwise of who out there, you know, who out there that I feel may dethrone. Okay. Well, maybe LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers have a little bit more of a case after getting whole last night. Let’s get to the game action, right? Because after missing the first 14 games in this, we’re grooving. You’re down. This is my view of the chalk toss early on. The first chalk toss of his 23rd season. I fought for my positioning, guys. I love that video. That’s why you lost the voice. It ain’t because of per boxing out, right? He was moving and grooving at the game last night. Yeah, that’s why you lost the voice. So, that was pregame. This is what happened in game. This is what Lakers fans have been waiting for here. DG. He’s become a shooter in his old age. Learned a thing or two from your boy Danny Green. Well, you have been waiting, Perk, to see this connection with Aton. And it’s actually not the first lob LeBron’s thrown to him. I was just telling him a fun fact. You know, he threw me an alleyoop. I said, “That’s my second alleyoop from you.” The first one was when I was in eighth grade at your camp. Aiden’s lowkey hilarious. Not the age jokes flying already. LeBron James again showing off his range here, Perk. Absolutely. And looking comfortable stepping stepping into that three-point shot. Look, they’re going to have they’re going to need him to do that, especially with the other ball handlers he has. And with that, he passes Reggie Miller for sixth most in three-point field goals in NBA history. But here comes Austin Reeves. Rookie got the rookie flying. Eight minutes left in the third. LeBron a little pump fake on the three. He still got it. Fade. One of his signatures imposing his will there. And then under seven minutes left here in the third. LeBron James once again. This is what you were breaking down the other day per That’s what I like to see, right? That slip take advantage of that mismatch. Little deep post up and you know baby food bully ball and when you got Dantage it’s just the cheat code. Yeah too good and Kevin love sorry to put him on that island. Luca once again by the way Luca had 37 points 10 assists and maybe Donic learning a little bit here from the LeBron school of dance as well. Little pop lock the Lakers on full display here kicking it out to Gabe. Look at Look at LeBron P. You already know and he held that post. Tom Brady quarterback right to the deep corner. Gay Vincent like Sean’s out there yesterday. Loving what he sees. Let’s put the finishing touches on this one here. Perk Dom back to Aiden again. He look does this so well getting out in transition. Big Aiden running doing his thing. That little cut right in the pocket. But the most important question, hey LeBron James, how are you feeling after game one of your 23rd season? win was a little shaky to begin. Obviously, I was that was expected, but um as the game went on and on, my win got a lot better. Caught my second win, called my third win. Um rhythm is still coming back. Obviously, first game in quite a while, almost 7 months. So, um you know, everything that happened tonight was as expected. You’re entering this is this is year 23. You’re now in it. You hadn’t played basketball since April, and you come out and have 12 assists, one turnover against seven guys who weren’t even born when you debuted. I know. Sorry. I will really enjoy once I’m done to be able to look back and see some of the things I accomplished and the group great group of guys I was around, the coaching staffs I was around when I was playing the game. So, um I can sit back and think about what you just said as far as seven guys not being born when I started this journey and uh yeah, that just made my back hurt. So, I do got a So, I got a few days before we play again, so I’ll be okay. Do we tell him 82 weren’t born when he came into the league leaguewide here? But old man jokes aside here, LeBron James was an AllNBA player last season. So, Perk, how did he look to you last night? He looked great. And everybody was wondering, was he going to go out there and go for 20 or 25 or 30? And then he reminded us that he’s the best all-around player this game has ever seen. The assist is what stood out to me, right? And it was the assist to the big man. He had 12 assists. Five of those assists with Jackson Hayes and DeAndre Aton. Over the last 10 years, you know, he’s ranked fifth in the last 10 years far as assist to big men with a,00 1,230. That’s the impact. Who’s going to benefit the most is DeAndre Aton and Jackson Hayes with LeBron James being back in his offense. I mean, I love what I see too. I can’t disagree with Perk. Um, the biggest thing he was having fun. He was have he played a great floor game. You know, we I expected him to come out a little bit more passive and kind of but people doubted if he could fit in or who he can play with. Yeah. Even though LeBron James is a big ego or big personality, he is a chameleon. He’s be able to adapt to adjust to any situation. So, he’s going to give this team whatever it needs, whether it’s defense, offense, and last night they just needed a quarterback. And last night, that’s what he did. He he did a great job of playing the floor game, finding DeAndre Aiden, finding Jackson Hayes, Gabe Vincent, Jake Laravia, and doing all the little things. So, I loved how he did that, not just for the first half, but the whole game, and didn’t force the issue. It seemed like maybe early on he eased into it a little bit and Sean were reporting until just hours before tip off how he had more steps that he wanted to make sure that he cleared. Was this decision actually close at all? How close was it? Malikica, ever since really midocctober, he was looking at mid- November and really that game right after the Lakers road trip against the Utah Jazz last night as the potential game to come back in. So the last month was essentially his training camp and his ramp up period to get there. I mean, last night the fewest field goal attempts of his NBA career in 25 minutes or more. So, the fact that he’s able to play and still have this impact, I’m not surprised. Ease was the word that I used to describe his play. And the next two weeks, LeBron and Lakers doctors will really be working on getting his conditioning, his wind back, and getting it to that place where he feels like he can play 35, 40 minutes, right? Because that’s what he said he needed to work on. His wind is like how my voice sounds right here. Really trying to work on that and get it back. Baby lungs here. But the Lakers, they were off to a 10 and4 start. And this is what you alluded to. Some questions the fit, right, of LeBron James with this team and the impact and the duo. Well, LeBron did have a simple answer to that, perk. Take a listen. I can fit in with anybody. I don’t even You understand why that was even a question? What’s wrong with these people out here? I can I can fit in right away with anybody. 23rd season, uh, it’s insane. and just sharing the core with him is special and he sees things that other people can’t. So, uh he’s here to help us all. So, uh it’s amazing and it’s only his first game back and he played amazing. So, I’m excited to play some more. I thought it was better than expected. Um you know, he was he was we wanted to keep him around 28. He played 2937 and he would have been able to finish the game had had we needed him. So, thought it was better than expected, but Everybody’s different. I don’t expect, you know, him getting into peak shape or LeBron shape. I don’t expect it to take long. I don’t know, Perk. The team chemistry, it looked pretty good. The Lakers, they put up a season high 140 points. Yes, it was against Utah. They were able to attack in transition and the return of LeBron, it really opened up new possibilities for the Lakers offense here. What impact did you see them him having on what did you call them? The best duo in basketball, Luca and Austin. Yeah. Well, I mean, the biggest thing with LeBron that always I look for when I watch him play is his body language, right? And his body language showed me last night that he was happy that he that yeah, he was having fun, which means that he believed in his squad and believed in his players. It was these plays, these and ones where you saw LeBron showing emotions, these assists that he was having. Austin Ree had a four-point play right here. Watch Braun. Watch Braun on this play. look just a little brother like that was one of them hug you know you give you got certain hugs where it’s like sideways you ain’t really like I’ll mess with you out but one of them Thanksgiving hug Thanksgiving hug is a talking about defense or transition and what LeBron brings to this group we’re going to talk about the transition cuz Lakers as it stands they are 27th in the league in transition offense and transition points people act they ask what LeBron brings we know LeBron to be a transition offensive player and how you can do that Even at 41 years old or 40 years old, not 41 yet. Um, but first with transition, you got to start with defense, right, Perk? You got to secure the rebound. Gabe Benson does a great job here walling up. Look at Braun boxing out. Alison Reeves secure the long rebound. Even Braun right here, look at him. We’re going to highlight him right here. He’s the last guy in the pack. First three steps. First three steps, which you talked about, you see if he was back or not. These first three steps, even though he’s behind the pack, he’s still very dangerous. And not that he’s capable, but he’s willing at 40 years old to still run the floor like he is. Austin Reeves, he sees LeBron. Everybody knows where he’s at on the floor at all times, even though he’s behind him. LeBron gets the ball here. And this is what LeBron sees. He sees this group right here. There’s numbers here. The paint is packed. One, two, three, four guys. Most normal basketball players see that. LeBron, this is what he sees. Sorry. We’re going to go this vision right here. He sees DeAndre Aton running the floor. Most guys don’t see that. LeBron’s IQ, his his vision is different than other people. As he sees that happening, he gets the ball, one dribble, scoop past DeAndre Aton, and what do we have? We get the celebration, the handshakes, and that happiness that we see from LeBron. You talked about how happy he was. We got this little emoji thing. Bear with me here, people. We got this little There we go. Oh, they took it out. They took it out. We got the emoji of the smile emoji. So, well, we have some new technology that we’ve been playing with here on NBA Today. You all asked for some new breakdowns. We heard you loud and clear and we cannot wait to continue to share those with you, Danny. Great job on that. But one area that LeBron really impacted was the Lakers scored a season high 74 paint points. That’s 21 points higher than their average this season. And it was the most paint points in any game perk that Luca Donuch and the Lakers most since February of 2024. here.

On NBA Today, Shams Charania, Kendrick Perkins and Danny Green react to LeBron James’ double-double in his season debut with the Los Angeles Lakers after missing the start of the season with sciatica.

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