LeBron James Calls For 'Patience' As Lakers Debut Ends In Portland Defeat

LeBron James believes there were "some good" and "some bad" moments in their season-opening loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night at the Moda Center.

In what was the first official game of the James era, the Lakers started the game well, taking a 25-15 lead in the first quarter with the 33-year-old scoring an impressive slam dunk early on.

James would eventually finish the game with 26 points, 12 rebounds and six assists in 37 minutes of action, in what can only be considered a successful personal debut for him.

Meanwhile, Josh Hart and Brandon Ingram combined for 36 points while Rajon Rondo posted 13 points and 11 assists. However, they could not prevent a losing start to the season.

The Lakers were poor defensively and even went on a 0-for-15 run when it came to three-pointers as the home side would finish the game strong with 35 points in the final quarter to win 128-119, despite what seemed like a late comeback from the visitors.

Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard scored 28 points while Nik Stauskas and C.J. McCollum combined for 45 points to not only keep Portland's 18-year winning run of home openers intact, but to extend a now 16-game winning run over the Lakers as well.

Assessing the performance, James saw both positives and negatives from the team.

"We had some good, we had some bad [moments], which is as expected for Game 1," James told reporters after the game. "I like our fight to get back into the game when we were down double digits, I like the way we competed, shared the ball at times."

"I don't want to say bad, [but] we could rebound a lot better, we had some turnovers which I expected. Just trying to get a feel for one another, our first regular season game together so we could do a better job at that."

Things were never going to be an instant success in Los Angeles, especially without the addition of another high-profile star along with James.

The Akron native had been calling for patience even during the preseason, and did the same once again as he spoke of how the entirely new Lakers roster continues to gel together as the season progresses.

"That's all I've been preaching since the season started. It's going to take patience from our team, from all of us," he added. "Figure out one another, figure out what we're good at, not so good at, how we can be better at it."

"It was a good first test for us to be in a building where they haven't lost in the 2000's [in home openers.]"

The Lakers are now 0-1 and will look to get to winning ways when they host the Houston Rockets at the Staples Center on Saturday next.

Last season's No. 1 seed in the Western Conference notably lost their season-opener as well to the New Orleans Pelicans in a 131-112 defeat Wednesday.