LeBron James Electrifies Lakers Crowd As He Reflects On 'Positive Night'

LeBron James electrified the Los Angeles Lakers home crowd as he made his Staples Center debut on Tuesday night.

Playing the Denver Nuggets in preseason for the second time in three days, James played 15 minutes again, posting 13 points, three rebounds and three assists, as he excited the crowd with a number of moments, including a coast-to-coast dunk in the first quarter.

In addition, center JaVale McGee finished top scorer once again with 15 points as well as eight rebounds and five blocks, while shooting guard Josh Hart bagged 14 points and four assists.

However, the Lakers were not able to prevent another preseason defeat despite leading 59-48 at halftime, although this time it was much closer, finishing 113-111 to the visitors.

But like James stated after the first game, it was always going to be a work in progress as he reflected on what was a positive night for the 16-time champions at the Staples Center that saw 19,000 fans in attendance.

"Great atmosphere. I felt like we played better as a team tonight than we did the other night so it was a positive night for us," James told reporters after the game.

Speaking about the fan attendance, he said, "Like I said in the first question, the turnout was great, the atmosphere was amazing and it's definitely appreciated by all of us in here that they came to a preseason game like this. We just tried to give them a good show which we did, all the way down to the last possession."

James felt the team was better defensively but could have gone a better job with rebounds as well as being more selfish on the night, though it is still positive news as the new roster continue to gel with each other.

"We were a little too unselfish but that's good for us, right now as we continue to learn from one another, we want to make the extra pass, go from a good shot to a great shot," James explained. "We felt we gave the ball up a little bit too much but it's going to be good for our team in the long run so as we continue to figure each other out and continue to go through what we want to do to get better, moving and sharing the ball is very key."

Lakers head coach Luke Walton agreed with James that being selfless was fine especially in preseason, even if he thought the players were messing with him by not taking open shots.

"I thought we were much more physical tonight, we got to clean up the fouling part of that," Walton said after the game. "We want to play fast, we had 30, 27 fast-break points, we want to be selfless. There was a few possessions from both units [starters and substitutes], I thought they were messing with me, they passed so many times when a lot of them had open shots. But it was still in the preseason and 100 percent I'll take that."

The Lakers will play the Sacramento Kings at the Staples Center on Thursday next as their preseason continues.