“Every first game that I step into the next level, it’s always some butterflies in my stomach,” James said after the game.
“But as soon as the ball tips and we go a couple times down, it all goes away and I’m just playing basketball.
So it’s always going to be there, but I’ll get through it.”
James received cheers and a warm ovation when he returned to the court in the second quarter.
Then, at last, James scored his first NBA points on a driving layup 5:51 before halftime.
He missed a pair of free throws at the 4:43 mark of the third period in his first trip to the line.
At one point during his warmup routine the 6ft 2in guard stood with hands on hips in a pose reminiscent of his father.
He will most likely get another chance to play on Sunday, when the Lakers face the Golden State Warriors in their next game of the Summer League, an off-season tournament in which teams experiment with younger players, free-agents and backups.
If all goes as planned, the 19-year-old James and his dad will become the first father-son pair to play in the NBA at the same time – and on the same team no less.
Bronny is the oldest son of LeBron, the NBA’s career scoring leader.
Bronny survived a cardiac arrest last July during a team workout at USC and it was later determined he had a congenital heart defect.
The younger James signed a four-year contract this month that will pay him $7.9m.
