The Los Angeles Lakers opened their pre-season campaign on a good note after taking a 98-95 victory over the Denver Nuggets at Valley View Casino Center in San Diego.
As for Jeremy Lin, there are a lot of reasons to feel optimistic going into next season after he played excellently as a playmaker in his first tune-up match with Lakers on Monday.
Despite a rough 0-for-6 shooting, the 26-year old playmaker orchestrated Byron Scott's offense well, finding his teammates with ease as he finished with a game-high 10 assists.
Lin, who is expected to assume a major role for the Lakers off the bench in the upcoming 2014-15 NBA season campaign, was meshing up pretty good with the second unit, especially with power forward Ed Davis.
Also playing in his first year with the purple-and-gold, the former North Carolina standout was the beneficiary of some the nifty passes from Lin, who seemed to be in a pass-first mentality throughout the duration of the game.
It has been a fine training camp for the Asian-American star so far. After two up-and-down seasons with the Houston Rockets, Lin seems set to have a bounced-back year for a Lakers team that badly needs more firepower to survive a very loaded Western Conference.
Scott has been very vocal about Lin's performance through the first week of training camp, lauding the former Harvard hot-shot for his aggressive play on both ends of the court.
"I like him a lot. I really do," Scott said in an interview with the LA Times last week. "On defense he really knows where to be. He's gritty, just like I knew he would be.
"He's going to guard you to the best of his ability, and he never gives up on a play. Offensively he runs the team. He gets to the basket. I love the way he pushes the ball in the open floor."
Lin and the Lakers will plunge back to action on Thursday against their division rival, the Golden State Warriors, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
