The Los Angeles Lakers withstood
a late run by the Minnesota Timberwolves to win their season
opener, 110-103, on a historic Tuesday night at the Crypto.com
Arena in downtown LA.

Anthony Davis had a dominant
MVP-type performance, putting up 36 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists,
and 3 blocks. He made key plays down the stretch on both ends of
the floor, scoring on 4-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy
Gobert and swallowing up a strong take by Donte
DiVincenzo.

The Lakers built a 20-point lead
in the first half only to see it cut down to single digits in the
3rd quarter. The Timberwolves came to as close as 4, 81-85, but
Davis and LA pulled off enough baskets and stops to come away with
the victory.

Davis became the first Laker to
achieve a 35+ point, 15+ rebound in an LA season opener win since
Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. 

Anthony Edwards scored 27 for
the Timberwolves in their losing effort but shot just 10/24 from
the field. Minnesota played their first regular season game with
Julius Randle (16 points) and DiVincenzo (10 points) after that
blockbuster trade a few weeks ago that sent Karl-Anthony Towns to
the New York Knicks.

This was a night to remember in
Los Angeles with lots of historic moments. Let’s check out each of
them here.

LeBron-Bronny the first-ever father-son duo in the
NBA

The game featured a historic
moment for LeBron James and his eldest son LeBron “Bronny” James
Jr. as they became the first father-son pair in the history of the
league to step on the court at the same time.

The wholesome moment happened
with 4 minutes left in the second quarter as LeBron and Bronny
checked in together in the game.

LeBron, who is in year 22 of his
basketball career and will turn 40 years old this December, is the
all-time leading scorer of the NBA with over 40,000 points. He
always expressed his desire of playing together with his son in the
NBA, and that dream became a reality today.

Bronny, the 55th overall pick in
the 2024 NBA Draft, is not expected to play heavy minutes for the
Lakers and will likely spend most of the year in LA’s G League team
South Bay Lakers to continue his development.

Nonetheless, the precious moment
was shared by the elder and younger James with their wife/mother
Savannah, daughter/sister Zhuri, and several high-profile people in
attendance to witness the history.

JJ Redick’s first pro game (and win) as an NBA
basketball coach

The Lakers’ win also allowed
first-year head coach JJ Redick to win his coaching debut. Redick,
a 15-year NBA veteran, did not have any basketball coaching
experience at any level but was relatively active around the
basketball scene. After a successful NBA career, the 6-foot-4 guard
out of Duke was an analyst for ESPN and had his own production
studio of podcasts to talk about the NBA before applying and
getting accepted for the Lakers job.

Redick did a relatively good job
in his first-ever regular season game, often coaching up the Lakers
to emphasize their offensive rebounding and to limit their
turnovers. Redick also expressed his desire for the Lakers to shoot
a certain number of threes, and although LA just went 5-30 from
deep, Redick liked what he saw as the Lakers played with pace and
space.

Redick also coached with a
veteran sense, drawing up unique and good set plays that drew
national media attention on social media. Redick was often credited
for the Lakers’ renewed sense of ball movement which could be a
good sign for the team moving forward.

Lakers (finally) win a season opener with
LeBron

Coming into the game, the Lakers
were 0-6 over their last season-opening games in the LeBron James
era. They weren’t about to lose 7 straight times, as AD willed them
victory.

Davis also mentioned this was
the Lakers’ first win in any historic moment that involved LeBron,
as he exchanged a laugh with reporters post-game.

“We lose every time [LeBron]
does something historic or cool, so we’re just happy to win today
and celebrate this moment,” Davis said.

LeBron: longest tenured player of all time

After playing in this game,
LeBron officially tied Vince Carter as the only players in NBA
history to play 22 seasons. With the body of work he has and the
ability to adapt to situations, LeBron could officially surpass
Carter next season and claim another record by himself – alone –
next season.