After the superstar missed last year's playoffs for the first time since 2005, the lousy LA Lakers look to have a fresh start this season.

James accounted for 25 points tonight as the club took its seventh victory in the eight opening matches. It was 95-80 at home against the Miami Heat after a strong defensive effort where the guests were only allowed to score 34 points in the second half.

- It wasn't any of our better games offensively, where we had it pretty hard, but the defense game does the job for us right now, James tells nba.com.

The triple NBA champion James wrote history last night by becoming the third player to score at least 20 points in 1000 games. A feat that only Karl Malone (1134) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1122) succeeded. James has played a total of 1206 matches during his 17-year NBA career.