With LeBron James and Luka Doncic sitting out of Friday night’s preseason opener against the Phoenix Suns, Bronny James was given a bigger role for the Los Angeles Lakers. The second-year guard struggled on the offensive end, going 1-of-12 shooting during his 24 minutes on the court. He scored eight total points, making five of his six free throw attempts.
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Following the game, James told the media he felt he took good shots despite his lackluster shooting percentage of 8.3%.
“I felt like they were pretty good shots,” said James via Greg Beacham of the Associated Press. “Not rushed, not forcing anything. Didn’t have my legs under me as much as I wanted to, so a lot of them were short, but most of them were on line. I felt like I could have made those. I felt like I took some good shots.”
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Bronny played better defensively, and that figures to be his role on the Lakers. He recorded five rebounds, two assists, but turned the ball over twice and finished as a -12 on the court in Los Angeles’ 103-81 loss to Phoenix in front of 9,122 fans at Acrisure Arena.
LeBron and Doncic will sit out in the Lakers’ second preseason gam on Sunday against the Golden State Warriors. Bronny was honest about his situation, noting that he needed to make the most of his opportunity against the Warriors because Los Angeles probably won’t offer him many opportunities in the regular season.
“I’m just trying to feel it out, trying to get some reps in with the guys,” Bronny said. “There’s probably not going to be as many opportunities during the season, so I’m just coming out and defending hard, playing my game, doing the non-negotiables. So if (head coach JJ Reddick) sees that, maybe he’ll give me an opportunity.”
Bronny will need to have more shots fall in on Sunday if he wants Reddick to give him more opportunities on the court. The Lakers have five more preseason games before they start the campaign off with the Warriors on Oct. 21.
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