Los Angeles made a special kind of league history during their home clash with the mighty Minnesota Timberwolves.
The 2024-25 NBA regular season is now officially underway. Two of the Western Conference’s most talked-about teams this offseason, the mighty Minnesota Timberwolves and the starry Los Angeles Lakers, squared off at Crypto.com Arena in downtown L.A.
Strangely, the biggest headline prior to the match was the fate of a non-rotation player.
That’s because raw rookie point guard Bronny James, eldest son of 20-time All-NBA Lakers superstar combo forward LeBron James, played next to his father for the first time in a game that counted.
In so doing, the two generations of Jameses made league history, becoming the first-ever such tandem to occupy an NBA floor simultaneously. The two had already played together in three preseason contests, but those were exhibition bouts whose results ultimately didn’t matter.
Bronny, who is clearly not a part of new head coach JJ Redick’s preferred rotation, cameoed for a scant 2:41 at the end of the first half, with the Lakers comfortably leading by double digits. He scored no points on 0-of-2 shooting and recorded just one stat, a rebound.
The story of the game, however, was a matchup between the two teams‘ supposedly marquee All-Defensive Team centers, reigning Timberwolves four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert and four-time All-Defensive Team Lakers center Anthony Davis.
Considering Gobert was supposed to stifle Davis‘ output, it was pretty impressive to see the Lakers‘ nine-time All-Star obliterate him.
The 6-foot-10 big man out of Kentucky scored a game-high 36 points on 11-of-23 shooting from the floor (1-of-3 shooting from deep) and 13-of-15 shooting from the charity stripe, often baiting Gobert. Davis was frequently the target of a still-lethal two-man game with LeBron James.
Minnesota’s just-extended center was whistled for four fouls. Davis also pulled down a game-best 16 rebounds to Gobert’s 14, exhibiting a better acumen for reading angles off the glass.
Accordingly, the Lakers survived a late-game Timberwolves push and held on to win, 110-103.
Minnesota, led offensively by sharpshooting All-NBA guard Anthony Edwards, actually got off to a better start, winning the first quarter 23-22.
