It is preseason, yes. And the Golden State Warriors have lost Kevin Durant and can't count on Klay Thompson until the next All-Star, yes. But Los Angeles Lakers showed this morning that they are not the same Lakers last season. They have changed their players, their mentality and their goals . It is no longer worth entering Playoffs. This team will aim to win the next NBA champion ring .

The pre-season debut of LeBron James and Anthony Davis as teammates could not be better. The former Cavaliers started the game as a starting base, something he has been exercising on the march in his last years in the league, but that had never been translated into the quintet until now. Beside him, Danny Green, Avery Bradley, Davis and JaVale McGee.

On the bench, Troy Daniels, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, Caldwell-Pope and Alex Caruso, members of a second unit full of role-playing players, needed to empower their two main stars.

The team, led by Frank Vogel , carburó in their first game of this preseason. He found a good version of Davis (22 points and 10 rebounds) and a LeBron seated in his role (15 points and eight assists. The new Lakers couple played 18 minutes, enough for a +14 and +14 with them on track who decanted the match until the 101-123 final.

"He had butterflies in his stomach, " LeBron said, in a statement that ESPN collects. "I didn't want to take it lightly because it was a preseason game. No one of us did it," he said.

"We are trying to help each other. The more we do, the easier it will be," Davis acknowledged.

The Warriors, who opened the pavilion in San Francisco , have a lot of work to do. Beyond the loss of Durant and Thompson's injury , Steve Kerr will need to recover the best version of Draymond Green and empower Stephen Curry as much as possible, which presupposes an MVP level season. If something less than that happens, the Warriors will have no options to access the last qualifiers for the title. The depth of the template is also in question. They have added D'Angelo Russell (4 points tonight), Willy Cauley-Stein and Alec Burks , who didn't play, but they need their young players to knock the door down and go up a couple of steps, especially a McKinnie that will cover the low from Durant. Almost nothing. The good news was the rookie Jordan Poole, who showed signs of potential and scored 17 points.

"It was a little weird the first night here (in the new pavilion)," Steve Kerr acknowledged, while Curry said it was "strange." "You are used to certain sounds, routines or costumes, you go out on the track and you think it's all normal, but no. We have two more games to get to know something else before the season starts. The pavilion is beautiful."

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