Los Angeles Lakers: 3 takeaways from 2018-19 season opener

The Los Angeles Lakers lost their 2018-19 season opener to the Portland Trail Blazers 128-119. Here are three takeaways from that loss in Portland.

A new sense of optimism for the Los Angeles Lakers didn’t get off to the start they wanted as the purple and gold fell in their season opener to the Portland Trail Blazers, 128-119. The Lakers have lost 16 straight games to the Blazers, and the addition of LeBron James was not enough to eradicate that losing streak in his first game with the Lakers.

LeBron got things started quickly with 18 of his team-high 26 points coming in the first-half, including a pair of tomahawk slams for his first Lakers buckets, but had a weird second half where he seemed passive and deferred to his teammates.

Six Lakers reached double-figures on the night, with the team doing most of its damage on the inside as they scored 70 points in the paint. There were some definite growing pains to sort out with so many new faces in the rotation, but none of this is an excuse for the effort on the defensive end.

The Lakers giving up 128 points to the Blazers is one thing, but the amount of open looks and second chances as they gave up 14 offensive rebounds is another matter. The Lakers are undersized and will be challenged on the glass, so boxing out and crashing the boards is a must for this team, or nights like this will happen.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1053118201465171968

There will be overreactions to every NBA game after the first week, and some are more obvious than others, such as LeBron and others figuring out each other’s tendencies. Here are the three takeaways from the opening night loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.