Winners and losers from the NBA’s opening week in 2018-19

Loser: LeBron James

Everyone knew things would be tougher for LeBron James in the Western Conference. They knew it would be tougher with a young, inexperienced cast of teammates. They should’ve known it would be tough in his first week with the Lakers, as their schedule tipped off with three straight games against playoff teams from last year.

Still, did anyone predict the era of L.A.-Bron would get off to an 0-3 start?

As always, LeBron has the individual numbers. He’s averaging 27.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game. But you could look at each one of L.A.’s three losses and point to something LeBron could’ve done better to turn that “L” into a “W.”

In the opener against the Portland Trail Blazers, LeBron went 0-for-4 on 3-pointers and made a couple of really bad passes in key spots where he got too fancy and threw the ball away.

Against the Rockets, he shot 1-for-7 from long range and his defense was subpar.

Then there was the San Antonio Spurs game. After bringing the Lakers back with a last-minute rally in the fourth quarter that he capped with a deep 3-pointer to force overtime, LeBron missed two free throws in the final seconds of OT and then missed a potential game-winning jumper.

While the usual suspects are having a field day with the “Kobe Bryant/Michael Jordan never would’ve done this” narrative, it is just one uncharacteristically unsuccessful week for the player that is still widely considered the best on the planet in his 16th NBA season.

LeBron will get it together, and the Lakers will start winning games. But this was not the celebratory start to the L.A.-Bron era that anyone envisioned.