LOS ANGELES -- With Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves on the bench in street clothes, LeBron James led the Lakers to a 107-98 win over the Houston Rockets in Game 1 of their first-round series Saturday night by doing something he had never done before in 293 career playoff games.
James dished out eight assists in the first quarter -- the most in any playoff quarter he has played as the NBA's all-time leader in postseason games -- to ignite the Lakers' offense against a Rockets team reeling from Kevin Durant's absence. The Houston star was a late scratch because of right knee soreness.
L.A. went up 33-29 after one quarter, shooting a blistering 15-for-19 from the field (78.9%), with 14 of those field goals coming off assists.
"For me, I got to do a little bit of everything," said James, who finished with 19 points, 13 assists, eight rebounds and two steals. "It's what the job requires. So, being a triple threat, being able to rebound, being able to pass, being able to shoot and also defend and put myself in position where I can bring value to this ball club, bring value to this team throughout this series."
While James distributed to start, he scored to put the finishing touches on the win, scoring nine of his points in the fourth quarter on 4-for-5 shooting. He was efficient throughout the night, shooting 9-for-15 (1-for-2 from 3).
"He displayed great leadership throughout," Lakers coach JJ Redick said of James. "We talked all week about being connected offensively and trusting the pass. He led us there in the first half, getting 10 assists, and then was able to make some scoring plays down the stretch.
"Just a fantastic overall game from him, and he gave us all he had on the defensive end. I mean, he really exerted himself on both ends, and that's what the playoffs are."
With the Lakers missing the combined 56.8 points scoring average from Doncic and Reaves, James found a new favorite target for his passes in Game 1: Luke Kennard.
Kennard, acquired at the trade deadline from the Atlanta Hawks in a deal for guard Gabe Vincent and a 2032 second-round pick, exploded for a playoff career-high 27 points on 9-for-13 shooting, including 5-for-5 mark from beyond the arc.
"It's everybody continuing to build confidence in me to be aggressive and look for my shot whenever I can," Kennard said. "So any daylight that I see -- and they obviously got some big athletic defenders, guys that have been on me from the start of the game trying to be physical. So, when I see space and the rim, I'm going to look to get it up."
James and Kennard hit back-to-back 3s in the fourth quarter to increase L.A.'s lead from 10 to 16, causing Houston to call timeout to try to regroup with 7:57 remaining.
The closest the Rockets would get was nine points the rest of the way.
All five Lakers starters scored in double digits, with Deandre Ayton (19 points on 8-for-10 shooting, 11 rebounds), Marcus Smart (15 points, eight assists, two blocks) and Rui Hachimura (14 points, three steals, two blocks) helping L.A. shoot 60.6% as a team.
Meanwhile, the Durant-less Rockets shot just 37.6%.
While Durant and his 26 points per game were certainly missed by the Rockets, Redick said the absence did not throw his team off its game plan -- even though the Lakers had prepared schemes to stop Durant all week.
"I don't think it affected our mentality," Redick said. "I thought our guys just responded well and met the moment. I mean, that's the biggest thing: You got to meet the moment in every game. And they were able to do that."