How LeBron James’ season debut in 2025 compared to his first ever NBA game in 2003

How LeBron James did in the first game of his 23rd season compared to his career debut

James did start off slowly and he was held scoreless in the first quarter.

Do you think this will be LeBron James’ final season?

After heading to the bench for some rest, James returned and looked a lot better during his second shift and had a much stronger step to the basket.

The Lakers didn’t need much from James to beat the lowly Jazz as LeBron gradually got back into the speed of the game.

He did finish with 11 points and just barely extended his 10-point streak to a record 1,293 straight games.

James’ production during his return in his 23rd season did look a lot different than his career debut, which saw him score 25 points, grab 6 rebounds and hand out 9 assists.

LeBron James: Career Debut vs. 23rd Season Return

Statistic	First Career Game (Oct 29, 2003)	Most Recent Game (Nov 18, 2025)
Team	Cleveland Cavaliers	Los Angeles Lakers
Opponent	Sacramento Kings	Utah Jazz
Final Score	L 92–106	W 140–126
Minutes Played (MP)	42	29
Points (PTS)	25	11
Rebounds (REB)	6	3
Assists (AST)	9	12
Steals (STL)	4	0
Field Goal % (FG%)	60.0% (12/20)	30.8% (4/13)

LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers looked good in their first game together of the 2025-26 season

The Jazz came out hot from the field as they took a 71-67 lead into the halftime break. 

With just over three minutes left in the third quarter, the Lakers took their first lead of the night at 89-88.

Los Angeles pushed its lead to 13 within the first few minutes of the fourth quarter and didn’t look back.

The Lakers didn’t need much offense from LeBron in this one as Luka Doncic finished with 37 points, Austin Reaves had 26 points, Deandre Ayton scored 20 points and Jake LaRavia had 16 off the bench.

The Lakers have now won 3 games in a row to improve to 11-4 and sit 4th in the Western Conference.