LeBron James eased his way into the season, ceding shots to Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves, committing to JJ Redick’s style and letting his teammates establish himself in the first handful of games in his 21st season.
Maybe it was him being respectful of a new process. Maybe it was a sign that time, the opponent he’d never lost to, was going to claim its eventual victory.
Or, just maybe, it was all a mirage, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and one of its greatest players still lurking, waiting for the moment to strike.
Wednesday, James did everything in leading the Lakers to a 128-123 win over Memphis.
When the offense went cold, he scored. When the ball bounced off the rim, he corralled it. And when a teammate shook open, he found him.
James scored 35 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and had 14 assists — his third straight triple-double — all leading to Lakers wins inside their home arena.
It’s the fourth time in his career with back-to-back-to-back triple-doubles. Among the 11 oldest players ever to have a game with a triple-double, James has 10 of them.
Wednesday’s heroics came with the Lakers having blown an early 15-point lead while their leading scorer, Anthony Davis, had been hampered with foul trouble and was largely ineffective.
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Through it all, James was terrific, keeping the Lakers engaged and in the game even when it teetered.
The Lakers, who had two days off to get ready for the Grizzlies, attacked Memphis early, playing like a team looking to get one back after losing in Tennessee last week.
The ball popped from one side to the other, the Lakers creating open threes off crisp passing, forceful cuts and colliding screens.
They corrected a lot of their defensive issues, sprinting back in transition and cleaning up Memphis misses off the glass.
And then it stopped.
Everything the Lakers did right in the opening minutes Wednesday quickly turned, as the team’s energy evaporated and their intentions gave way to bad habits.
Despite the Grizzlies being without their starting backcourt, Ja Morant and Desmond Bane, Memphis cooked the Lakers’ defense in the kind of way that made strong performances in their last two games look like anomalies.
Led by Jaren Jackson Jr., the one member of the Grizzlies’ big three that was healthy, Memphis outscored the Lakers 70-53 in the second and third quarters as the Lakers did little but half-heartedly swipe at the ball and commit lazy fouls.
But the Lakers hung around, thanks to James, Rui Hachimura and rookie Dalton Knecht, who scored a career-high 19 points while making all five of his three-point shots.
Knecht and Hachimura combined to shoot 13-of-15 from the field for 38 points.
And after Davis returned to the game with five fouls midway through the fourth, he hit a pair of clutch three-point shots to push the Lakers through the tape into their sixth straight win at home to start the season.
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It’s their best start to a year inside their building since 2010. In the 1988-89 season, the Lakers began the year with 17 straight wins at home.
The Lakers begin group play in the NBA Cup Friday in San Antonio against the Spurs.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
