After dishing out a bunch of assists as the lead guard for the Los Angeles Lakers in their preseason opener, LeBron James took on the role of scorer for the Lakers as head coach Frank Vogel inserted Rajon Rondo into the starting lineup for Thursday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets in Shanghai.
LeBron led all scorers, along with Brooklyn’s Spencer Dinwiddie, with 20 points to go with six rebounds and only two assists. According to multiple reports from the scene, LeBron even drew several oohs and ahhs crowd on hand while the crowd was covered with small Chinese flags.
In addition to LeBron’s scoring, the Lakers saw a strong outing from Rajon Rondo but also another solid outing for Alex Caruso, who had 11 points and eight assists. Vogel promised before leaving the United States that he would shuffle through several different lineup combinations.
If Vogel continues with his shuffling, and the Lakers game against the Nets scheduled in Shenzhen actually goes on, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see Caruso get a shot to play more minutes with the Lakers two stars. If he does, it will be interesting to see if LeBron once again takes on the lead creator role as he did in the preseason opener against Golden State or plays more of a finishing role as he did on Thursday.
