LOS ANGELES_On the night LeBron James introduced his game to Los Angeles in earnest, a fight on the floor stole the show.
With 4:13 remaining in the Lakers' home opener Saturday against Houston, a foul on Brandon Ingram sparked an absolute melee, the kind rarely seen in NBA games these days.
Ingram, who'd fouled James Harden on a drive with the Rockets holding a 109-108 lead, stood over referee Jason Phillips and shouted at him before Lance Stephenson rushed over to pull him away. Meanwhile, Rajon Rondo and Chris Paul stood inches away from each other's faces. Paul reached forward to poke Rondo in the face, Rondo punched him in his, and Paul fired back. Ingram ran from across the court to throw a punch, too.
Eventually James, Paul's close friend, threw his arms around him and dragged him away.
Ingram, Rondo and Paul were ejected and likely will be suspended and heavily fined. As the public address announcer told the arena of the players' fate, the crowd defiantly began to chant "RON-DO!"
The fight didn't fire up the Lakers, though. Harden made two technical-foul free throws and the Lakers never got any closer than within one as the Rockets held on for a 124-115 win.
Harden scored 36 and Paul had 28 with 10 assists and seven rebounds for the Rockets, who closed on a 15-7 run after the fight.
James scored 24 points with five assists and five rebounds. Rondo started at point guard and contributed a double double with 13 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.
The game taught Lakers fans this lesson: When James is one of your own, you get a whole new set of feats to cheer.
You get the perfect 18-foot jumper that scored the Lakers' first points at home this season, to stop a 7-0 Rockets run that started the game. You get the two-handed dunk as he cuts to the basket and JaVale McGee finds him. You get the no-look pass to Josh Hart, streaking toward the basket as James looked toward Rondo standing near the scorer's table.
But you also get a dose of reality. James' magic often will stop short of wins.
"I can promise to our fans we're not the team tonight that we're going to be in January, February," James said earlier. "But we will be extremely excited to get out there and play for them."
The Lakers struggled from three-point range again, with only Lonzo Ball producing a respectable percentage. Ball made four of eight threes while the team went eight of 32. The Rockets, the league's most prolific three-point-shooting team, made 16 of 42.
The Lakers also missed too many free throws, going 11 of 18 from the line.
It had been three months since they first started anticipating what this would be like _ to hear James introduced as a Laker, to see him, as a Laker, take on best teams in the Western Conference, and give the Lakers real hope that they could be one of them.
When the lights dimmed at Staples Center, and the public address announcer asked for a moment of silence to honor three people who had recently passed away, the place seemed like it was about to burst. A few voices called out amid the silence, met with pleas for respect from others around them. They were asked to remain standing and silent for the national anthem, but that was too big an ask.
As soon as the song reached "land of the free," and the video board camera panned to James, the place erupted.
Two days after they lost at Portland in their season opener, this test came in the form of a team that was on the cusp of reaching the NBA Finals five months ago. The Lakers' second game, like their first, came against one of the Western Conference's best teams.
