It's alllll over for the Lakers. The season opener, that is. A frustrating game is behind the Los Angeles Lakers now, which is where it needs to stay with the second game of their back to back on the agenda against a Portland Trailblazers team that is absolutely going to be ready to run the Lakers out of the gym. It wasn't all bad last night, though, and here are the highlights to remind you that there may still be enough time in an 82 game season for the Lakers to find a way to make this work.

Highlight of the night for me was that beautiful Pau Gasol to Dwight Howard drop off for the flush. Just gorgeous. To note, in the first half the Lakers offense was moving off ball with a purpose. Specifically, both Kobe Bryant and Antawn Jamison were moving through the key repeatedly to get to the rim on cutters. This is a welcome development, and a sign that the Princeton is indeed working, even if it's to a lesser extent than we'd like. It's going to take time for a system like the Princeton to be fully implemented and understood, and the balance that they will need to find is going to take even longer to find, but there is hope to be had. 81 more to go, ladies and gentlemen!

(That Jae Crowder kid can shoot, eh?)