Two days after making his purple-and-gold debut, Jeremy Lin made his first start with the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday against the Western Conference power Golden State Warriors at Staples Center.
With Byron Scott giving the 41-year old Nash an off-day because of a nerve root irritation, it's up to Lin to lead the Lakers first-team for the first time since the start of training camp.
The 26-year old Lin played solid in his first Laker start, finishing with 14 points on 4-for-4 shooting with four rebounds and four assists in 21 minutes of playing time.
The Lakers lost to the Warriors 120-105 in their second pre-season match, but Lin he learned a lot from sharing the same backcourt with Kobe Bryant for the first time.
"I thought it went fine," Lin told the press via ESPN. "I haven't even taken reps with the first team in practice, so this is the first time I did anything with him pretty much. It's just a growth process and learning each other's spots. I think the second half we were a lot more comfortable than in the first half."
Lakers head coach Byron Scott pointed out during the presser that Lin should be ready at all time, because he's going to play major minutes either as a starter or a backup to Nash, whose health will be the Lakers priority throughout the 82-game season campaign.
"He's got to be ready every night," Scott said of Lin's minutes. "Every game might be different. That's one of the things we have that we just don't know with Steve right now.
"Jeremy knows every game he's going to play, but there's going to be games that he's going to start and he's going to have to play a lot more minutes."
Lin and the Lakers will take two days of rest before playing against the Warriors for the second straight time at Citizens Business Bank Arena on Sunday.
