At 33 years old, LeBron James is still the force that holds together whichever team he’s playing for. This year, that’s the Los Angeles Lakers, and in their first game in this 2018-19 NBA regular season, James’ importance to the Purple and Gold was illuminated right away by this specific statistic.

https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/1053124171893563397

It took just a little over three minutes of LeBron James-less basketball for the Lakers to flounder and allow the Portland Trail Blazers to outscore them by eight points.

Most people still think that the Lakers will go as far as James takes them and if it’s going to be the case for the team, then this tidbit of stat definitely supports that premise.

The Lakers, however, aren’t devoid of good players outside of James. They have up-and-coming guys like Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram, and Josh Hart. They also have a proven veteran point guard in Rajon Rondo, who started as the point guard in the game. But based on this small sample data size, James is the be-all and end-all figure for this Lakers team that is trying to bounce back from a season in which it finished with just a 35-47 record.

The Lakers eventually lost the Blazers game, 128-119. James finished the contest with 26 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists.

They will look to get their first win of the season this coming Saturday against the Houston Rockets at Staples Center for the Lakers’ home opener.