BOSTON -- It took 16 years, but the Celtics officially raised banner No. 18 to the TD Garden rafters Tuesday night, as the franchise celebrated its record-setting 18th NBA championship ahead of its season-opening 132-109 win over the New York Knicks, a game in which Boston tied the NBA record for 3-pointers.

"I can honestly say, to the best fans in the world," Jayson Tatum said with a smile during the pregame ceremony, "let's do it again."

After years of playoff disappointment and heartbreak, Boston tore through the league last season, winning 64 games in the regular season before cruising through the playoffs with ease, going 16-3 to claim the organization's first title since 2008.

And, after rattling off the team's accomplishments, including going 37-4 at home in the regular season, much to the delight of the sellout crowd, Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck smiled and said that they were, "Pretty damn good."

"In a storied history that includes 23 retired jerseys," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said, "now, this special Celtics team is creating a history of its own as we enter the 79th season of the NBA."

As part of that celebrated history of the Celtics franchise, several legends from the team's past were on hand -- from Bob Cousy, who won six of those titles in the NBA's early seasons; to Cedric Maxwell, who won an NBA Finals MVP award and a pair of titles; to the anchors of the last team to claim a title here: Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, together again and celebrating being the second-to-last Celtics team to win hardware.

"What an incredible night. The aura in the arena was amazing, having the legendary Celtics in the building ... it's almost like they were passing the torch," Jaylen Brown said after the game.

He continued, "My rookie year, when I got drafted, this is what I said I would do -- I would go to war for this city, and it's great to watch that banner get raised."

The crowd exploded on a few occasions during the introductions of the coaches and players -- specifically for former coach and current president of basketball operations Brad Stevens; coach Joe Mazzulla, who kissed the floor as he walked out to get his ring from Silver; Kristaps Porzingis, who is out for at least the next couple of months recovering from offseason ankle surgery; and Brown and Tatum, the team's two stars who were introduced last.

Then, with the rings handed out, the team's focus shifted to the task at hand: a highly-anticipated showdown with New York, a team that is hoping to do this season what the Celtics did last year -- and spent the summer acquiring a pair of big names in Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns in an effort to do that.

"I mean, whenever a team wins the championship, everyone analyzes how they did it and what their personnel was and what their scheme was and everything," Knicks guard Jalen Brunson said Tuesday morning after the Knicks held their morning shootaround at TD Garden. "And so, I don't want to speak for the rest of the league, but a lot of people saw how successful they were with their offense and their five out and their schemes and whatever. And so, it may not be a carbon copy, but everyone will want to kind of adjust to the new ways of basketball every time someone wins like that."

Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert has reached a three-year, $110 million contract extension, sources told ESPN on Tuesday night.

The Timberwolves and Gobert's agent, Bouna Ndiaye of Comsport, negotiated the new deal and finalized an agreement before the team's game against the Los Angeles Lakers tipped off, locking in the league-record four-time Defensive Player of the Year in Minnesota.

Gobert declined his $46.6 million player option for 2025-26 and received a fresh multiyear deal, providing the Timberwolves with significant flexibility as the franchise juggles increasing salary cap bills.

As negotiations went on, Gobert expressed faith in the Timberwolves' approach to contention and exploring a creative route to receive financial security and allowing the organization to continue adding pieces.

Gobert's deal includes a player option in 2027-28 and a trade kicker, sources said.

Gobert, 32, played an essential role as the Timberwolves went 56-26 and advanced to the Western Conference finals last season, only the second time in franchise history that Minnesota got past the first round of the playoffs. He averaged 14.0 points, 12.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks en route to his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award.

It was the eighth straight season that Gobert, a three-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA selection, has averaged a double-double.

Gobert spent the first nine seasons of his career with the Utah Jazz before being dealt to Minnesota in a blockbuster trade during the 2022 offseason, when the Timberwolves gave up a package that included four first-round picks and several players to acquire the defensive anchor.

The Timberwolves opened their season with a 110-103 loss to the Lakers on Tuesday night.

ESPN's Tim MacMahon contributed to this report.

BOSTON -- The Celtics and New York Knicks took the court for the opening game of the NBA season Tuesday night, a clash that Jalen Brunson said Tuesday morning was a fair barometer -- despite being the first game -- for where the new-look Knicks stand against the defending champions.

But instead of a tense, dramatic affair, the only drama on this night at TD Garden, where the Celtics raised their record-setting 18th NBA championship banner to the rafters, was watching Boston spend the final 8:54 of the 132-109 win over New York trying -- and, ultimately, failing -- to break the NBA record for 3-pointers made in a game.

After Al Horford had Boston's third straight make to start the fourth quarter with 8:54 remaining -- pushing Boston into a tie with the Milwaukee Bucks for the NBA record with 29 makes in a game -- the Celtics missed 13 consecutive attempts, including three air balls and several other ugly misses, in what turned out to be the only thing that didn't go Boston's way.

"It was almost like we got jinxed or something," Celtics forward Jaylen Brown said. "It was like when we were just playing, having fun, playing our style of basketball, everything was going in. And then once the crowd got into it and we started hunting them, we couldn't even hit the broad side of the barn. Everything was off. We got a bunch of great looks, and it was like a lid on the basket.

"So that just shows, like, we're not a team that's hunting 3s. We play the game and we do what we're supposed to do, but I think towards the end it was tough because we wasn't playing the way we had normally played. But we still had a bunch of great looks."

Before Boston's cold streak, the Celtics had gone 29-for-48 from behind the arc -- part of a teamwide offensive display that saw the Celtics finish with 33 assists compared to just three turnovers. Jayson Tatum, fresh off tweaking his jumper this summer, finished with 37 points on 14-for-18 shooting, including 8-for-11 from 3-point range.

But for as hot as the Celtics were for most of the game, that's how cold they became down the stretch. Despite the crowd chanting "One more 3" on several occasions, it wasn't enough for Boston to get over the line as the Celtics spoiled the Knicks debuts of big-name offseason acquisitions Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns.

"I asked around, like, 26 what [the record] was," Celtics guard Derrick White said, "and then someone told me. And then when we were tied, I was like, 'Oh, we're one away from the record.'

"I shouldn't have said anything. It's kind of like a no-hitter, huh. I blame myself for that one."

The Knicks blamed themselves -- and, specifically, their defense -- for allowing the game to get away from them as quickly and thoroughly as it did. From coach Tom Thibodeau to Towns to Brunson, every part of New York's franchise made it clear that it's going to take a far better effort at that end of the court to compete with Boston for Eastern Conference supremacy.

"We can talk about offense all y'all want," said Towns, who had 12 points and 7 rebounds in 23 minutes. "I'll leave that to y'all when y'all go home and write the stories. But I know for us we got to play defense."

Boston seemed to repeatedly catch New York off-guard with quick looks in transition -- another thing many players pointed to as a problem. And, according to Second Spectrum, the Celtics made 15 3-pointers on half-court sets that came within the first 12 seconds, tied for their most in a game since player tracking began in 2013-14.

"We were in rotation," said Brunson, who led the Knicks with 22 points in 24 minutes. "It started with Jayson knocking down a lot of shots off the pick-and-roll and then us adjusting and him making the right play, getting us in rotation.

"So got to give the credit to them. They're a good team. What they do is unique, and we were just on our heels all night."

What players on both sides agreed on, however, was that this was just one game of 82. And while Boston fulfilled its stated mandate to try to approach this season as if it was a team challenging for the title, rather than one coming off claiming its 18th NBA championship, New York now sees just how much work it has to do in order to reach the levels it hopes to this season.

"It's Game 1," Thibodeau said. "We didn't have that much time yet. But it's early, and you got to learn from it. So our thing is get better from this and watch film, and I think it was a great test for a team like this, who are already up there.

"It's a good test, and we'll learn from that and try to build on what we got to do with our habits and everything."

LOS ANGELES -- When LeBron James made history two seasons ago, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, his eldest son, Bronny James, was sitting courtside along the baseline.

On Tuesday night, in the Los Angeles Lakers' season opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves, LeBron and Bronny made history by being on the court together.

They became the first father-son duo in NBA history to appear in a game together when they checked in together with 4:00 left in the second quarter. LeBron started and had already played 13 minutes before he reentered with Bronny for the historic moment.

As the pair got up from the end of the bench and walked toward the scorer's table, the Crypto.com Arena crowd began to buzz, erupting in a cheer when LeBron and Bronny tore off their warmups to officially step onto the court.

The Lakers were outscored 7-2 in their first shift together, with Bronny missing an open 3 on the wing and also getting blocked by Rudy Gobert on a tip-in attempt after corralling an offensive rebound.

Bronny checked out with 1:19 left in the half and did not return in the Lakers' 110-103 win. LeBron finished with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.

Bronny, selected by L.A. in the second round of the NBA draft with the No. 55 pick in June, struggled in the preseason, averaging 4.2 points on 29.7% from the field. But he finished on a high note, scoring 17 points on 7-for-17 shooting with 4 rebounds and 3 steals.

First-year Lakers coach JJ Redick championed the rookie guard, however, playing him in all six of L.A.'s exhibition games, including trying out a lineup with Bronny and LeBron together briefly in the second quarter against the Phoenix Suns on Oct. 6.

Before the Wolves game, Redick said he was "thrilled to be a part" of the "historic" occasion of LeBron and Bronny entering the season on the same team.

Redick said that he consulted the father and son to get their input on how they would prefer their first game action together to play out.

"We had a couple conversations around it," Redick said. "I think everybody is on the same page. We want it to sort of make sense and we want it to happen naturally and in the flow of a game."

Sitting along the same baseline where Bronny watched his dad break Abdul-Jabbar's record was another father-son duo who made history together.

Ken Griffey Jr. and Ken Griffey Sr., the first father-son duo to play together in the MLB, made an occasion out of it.

"To know that those guys will be in attendance tonight while me and Bronny are on the same team is a pretty cool moment in the history of sports," LeBron said after L.A.'s morning shootaround.

LeBron and Bronny took a quick break from their pregame warmups to greet the Griffeys and pose for a photo on the court.

Tuesday was the fourth time in professional sports when the father-son instance occurred.

Besides the Griffeys, the Jameses joined hockey great Gordie Howe, who played with two of his sons, Mark and Marty, for the Hartford Whalers in 1980, the first time the family feat happened in the NHL. Tim Raines and Tim Raines Jr. also took the field together for the Baltimore Orioles on Oct. 4, 2001.

The Griffeys played together for the Seattle Mariners for two seasons in 1990 and 1991, memorably hitting back-to-back home runs on Sept. 14, 1990.

One hour and 55 minutes before tipoff Tuesday, Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick made no promises that LeBron James and Bronny James would make history during the regular-season opener soon to begin.

Especially with his first game coaching the Lakers coming against one of the Western Conference's best in the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"We would all like to win," Redick said during his pregame remarks. "I'd like to go 82-0." Redick said he consulted with the father and son in multiple conversations leading up to the Minnesota game and the group came to a consensus: "We want it to make sense, and we want it to happen naturally and in the flow of the game."

Of course, the environment was anything but natural, with Ken Griffey Jr. and Ken Griffey Sr. sitting courtside, baseball's first father-son duo there to witness the same happen in basketball by the James family.

As much as the presence of the Griffeys was an indicator that Tuesday would be the night, the real tell came when LeBron subbed out with 7:34 to go in the second quarter and marched down the baseline to the Lakers' bench.

Sitting in the second-to-last seat -- next to LeBron's customary end spot, left vacant for the Lakers' star -- was Bronny.

All preseason long, Bronny sat toward the middle of the bench, the rookie jammed in with other young teammates within earshot of the coaches' chatter. This positioning, however, set up Bronny and LeBron's entrance a few minutes later. With exactly four minutes left in the second quarter -- after a 29-12 run by the Lakers gave Redick's group a double-digit lead -- the coach made the call.

LeBron and Bronny stood up together and moved toward the scorer's table, with Bronny leading and his dad trailing behind. With each step, more and more fans realized history was about to be made and a buzz began to reverberate throughout the arena.

By the time they were peeling off their warmups to officially enter the game together, the crowd met the moment with a hearty ovation.

Their first steps onto the court ended up being more momentous than their first shift. In just over two minutes together, L.A. was outscored 7-2. Bronny missed an open 3 on the wing off a pass from LeBron that had the arena ready to erupt had it gone down. LeBron missed a shot off a Bronny feed, too. The pairing, just like Bronny's young career, is a work in progress.

That work officially began three weeks ago, when the then-19-year-old joined his dad, Anthony Davis and the rest of the Lakers at his first training camp. Since then, the anticipation of the father-son regular-season debut only heightened, with the crescendo finally peaking Tuesday night. Here are seven key moments, between LeBron and Bronny, from training camp through the preseason, that paved the way to history.

Oct. 2: El Segundo, California -- a one-play showcase for the Lakers' vision for LeBron and Bronny

On the second day of practice, during a full-court scrimmage, rookie guard Quincy Olivari had the ball in the corner, covered by Jaxson Hayes. Olivari, who had come into training camp on an Exhibit 10 deal and earned a two-way contract by the end of it, oozes confidence. But on this play, rather than testing his shot against the 7-foot-1 center, he swung it out to Bronny James, who was flashing some bravado of his own.

Bronny had maneuvered from the top of the key to the left wing, showing his hands to Olivari to signal he wanted the ball as a 6-foot-9, 250-pound defender -- who happens to be his father, LeBron James -- trailed on his hip.

Olivari zipped it to Bronny, who immediately put the ball on the floor and dribbled backward half a step beyond the 3-point line. His left-hand dribble gave his dad time to catch up and square up in his defensive stance, but it also gave James space.

He dribbled once more and turned his head toward rookie forward Dalton Knecht, who had moved to top of the key. However, once the ball bounced off the hardwood, Bronny went right into his shooting motion and launched. The ball was already out of his hands before LeBron could even raise an arm to contest. It splashed through the hoop for three points.

"Everybody was talking smack in Bronny's favor," Anthony Davis said. "Then Bron came down and just bullied somebody. Just took it out on [him] and got a layup."

Indeed, on the next possession, LeBron used five dribbles to go coast-to-coast, trucking wing Maxwell Lewis as he burst from the 3-point arc toward the paint, to finish at the hoop.

This was the Los Angeles Lakers' vision for selecting Bronny with the No. 55 pick.

Coming off a taxing -- albeit successful -- summer at the Olympics, LeBron, 39, would be well within his rights to coast during camp ahead of his 22nd season.

But if having Bronny around is going to invigorate the 22-year veteran, won't that energize the entire organization? "I think it just feels right that our team is in a position to honor LeBron and honor how he wants the last chapter to go," Rob Pelinka, Lakers general manager and vice president of basketball operations, told ESPN this summer. "And we feel really good about it. That's who the Lakers are, who the Lakers have always been and who we'll be. We will honor the greats and we're proud of that."

Oct. 4: Palm Desert, California -- exclusive kicks and two divergent rookie performances

As Bronny waited his turn to take the court at Acrisure Arena to go through his pregame routine with the Lakers' lead player development coach, Ty Abbott, he sat on the sideline and laced up his sneakers.

While Bronny's quiet demeanor rarely demands attention, in this moment, his kicks did. Red and suede and exclusive -- a player-edition (commonly referred to as "PE" in the sneaker community) of the Nike LeBron NXXT Gen AMPD -- his No. 9 was stitched on in white thread, just next to the Nike swoosh.

Later that night, Lakers coach JJ Redick started the second quarter with Bronny on the court and played him 16 minutes total. It was his first NBA action.

Bronny finished with two points on 1-for-6 shooting, but led the team with three blocked shots, including a patented James-family chase-down on the Minnesota Timberwolves' Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

As Bronny exited the court to head to the locker room, he found Wolves rookie Rob Dillingham for a quick hello. Like Bronny, Dillingham was notably smaller than most players on the court, listed at 6-1, 195 pounds. Like Bronny, Dillingham came off the bench the vast majority of the games he played in his freshman season in college before declaring for the draft. Like Bronny, Dillingham is represented by Klutch Sports and they spent countless hours preparing for the season together this summer in L.A.

Unlike Bronny, Dillingham scored 21 points on 9-for-20 shooting with four assists -- more than anyone on the Lakers, with LeBron and Davis sitting out the exhibition opener.

Oct. 6: Palm Desert, California -- birthday cupcakes and a soft launch to history

In the team's meeting room, a tray full of cupcakes with yellow frosting and purple sprinkles sat next to a white, two-layer cake with purple and gold ribbons and fondant palm trees awaited Bronny. It was his 20th birthday.

Just 15 months earlier, during a summer workout at USC ahead of his freshman season, Bronny had gone into cardiac arrest. Doctors discovered a congenital heart defect and performed surgery to correct it, leaving a six-inch scar down the center of his chest. In an October cover story, he told Men's Health magazine he now takes regular heart medication.

In Palm Springs, against the Suns, Bronny started the second quarter again -- only this time, his dad was there with him.

They stood shoulder to shoulder in the backcourt, the Spectrum Sportsnet camera capturing James' No. 23 next to James Jr.'s No. 9.

They played four minutes together and the happenstance was more memorable than the hoops. During one 44-second stretch, the duo turned the ball over three times -- two for Bronny, one for LeBron.

This was a soft launch for history -- and a celebration.

"For a father, it means everything," James said afterward. "For someone who didn't have that growing up, to be able to have that influence on your kids and have influence on your son ... and ultimately to be able to work with your son, I think that's one of the greatest things that a father can ever hope for or wish for."

Oct. 12, El Segundo, California -- an early mentor for Bronny

What started as a simple request from LeBron to Max Christie, to join him and Bronny after practice for extra shots, is now something Christie could set his watch to.

"It's kind of turned into a routine thing now, which I find pretty cool," Christie told ESPN of the family spot shooting exercise.

"It's usually just a bunch of movement shots," Christie continued. "Just getting extra reps. It's really more so confidence for us as players and kind of seeing the ball go through the hoop after practice and building muscle memory."

Lakers assistant coach Scott Brooks joins the group to help pass and rebound.

"I never thought in my being in the NBA for 38 years, I would see a father and a son be on the court together on the same team, or even in the NBA period," Brooks told ESPN. Christie, 21, is entering his third season after the Lakers picked him 35th in the second round in 2022.

What LeBron pours into Christie, Christie is now pouring into Bronny.

"I don't know if I'm a 'vet' yet, but I kind of have some experience in this," Christie said of Bronny, whose locker is next to his. "I definitely have been trying to look out for him a little bit. I know, kind of, the things he's under. The optics. The visual stress of it, whatever you want to call it. So I want to be there for him ... and not, obviously, intrude on his space but when I feel like he can use some instruction or it seems like he's down or whatever, I kind of want to be there for him."

Not that Brooks says he thinks Bronny necessarily needs much extra help.

"Most young players, and I've coached a lot of them, you have to go down a checklist of what they need to do in order to be able to be an NBA player," Brooks said. "He's obviously been raised the right way. The professionalism, the [being] on time, coachable, working every day, understanding there's going to be ups and downs. He gets all of that. Now he just has to experience it all for himself. Not one time have I ever had to pull Bronny over to the side and say, 'Hey, it's not cool what you just did.'"

If anything, Brooks is there to make sure the old man doesn't pull any shenanigans to win any of the shooting competitions.

"I'm keeping track," Brooks said. "LeBron is 0-7. He hasn't won one of them. It's Bronny and Max winning everything and I'm making sure that the group is well aware of it."

Oct. 15, Las Vegas -- a little rookie hazing ... from Dad?

If the black, slide sandals with white skeleton bones embossed on them didn't suggest Bronny was a rookie, the shiny, holographic backpack that looked as if it were made from the same material as Marty McFly's hat in "Back to the Future II" certainly did.

The gaudy backpack is the first outward sign of any rookie hazing.

As he made his way off the T-Mobile Arena court after shootaround, Bronny walked by LeBron, who was having saran wrap looped around his back to hold an ice bag in place.

"You got to do media?" LeBron said, trolling his son.

"You know I was going to after yesterday," Bronny quipped back.

The day before, LeBron was asked how Bronny was dealing with all of the outside attention as the preseason played out.

"You got to ask him," LeBron said. "That's a grown man. Ask him how he's handling it. And then we go from there. But he's a grown man. He's a professional. He can handle all this pressure himself."

Bronny explained one way he avoids a lot of the noise. "I don't have Twitter," he said. "I don't like it. I don't need it."

He added that he had identified what his game was missing -- and it wasn't lack of size or the inability to grasp NBA schemes at such a young age.

"Just need to grow my confidence and be more comfortable when I'm out there playing," he said. "Because, I feel good. The numbers could be better, but I just got to get my confidence up."

Later that night, with the Golden State Warriors pulling away from the Lakers in the second half, the Vegas crowd started a "Bronny! Bronny!" chant in the third quarter.

Bronny, stoic, stared out at the action on the court. LeBron, seated at the end of the bench, sat expressionless too. Davis, however, sitting next to LeBron, cracked a wry smile.

The chant became louder in the fourth quarter. And when Redick subbed Bronny in with 9:07 left in the fourth and L.A. down 88-73, the crowd erupted like a student section cheering for a walk-on. On the Lakers' next possession, with the crowd still buzzing, Bronny received the ball on the right wing with former defensive player of the tear, Draymond Green, guarding him.

He jab stepped, then fired, clanking a miss off the rim.

On the next possession, D'Angelo Russell had an open look at a transition 3 but spotted Bronny in the same spot where Bronny missed the 3 against Green. Russell passed it to him for a do-over. He missed again.

When asked about the sequence later, Russell downplayed the Bronny angle. "If anybody was there, I would have tried to [find them]," he said. "We call it good to great. We try to get a greater shot than just a good shot. So, he just happened to be there. I look forward to him making it in the future, for sure."

Bronny finished the game 1-for-5 shooting (0-for-3 from 3), to drop his total to 2-for-16 for the preseason.

Oct. 17, Phoenix -- 'Training his a--'

Olympic gold medalists Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Davis and LeBron were all in the building when, about an hour and a half before tipoff, three videographers rushed over to Bronny and crouched in front of him to shoot him tying his sneakers on the bench before taking the court for his pregame shooting routine.

"This is crazy," a Lakers photographer muttered under her breath as she took a photo.

The fervor had been building at the Footprint Center all day. When the Lakers were conducting the closed portion of their shootaround earlier that morning -- meaning all entrances from the concourses to the seats were covered -- somebody pulled back one of the curtains in the upper bowl and blurted one word before scurrying away:

"Bronny!"

LeBron sat out the game ("DNP -- old," Redick joked) but had a front row seat when, in the third quarter, Bronny drove and Bradley Beal met him in the air, as Bronny attempted a scoop shot around him. Despite the contact, no foul was called and Bronny quickly corralled his own miss and went right back up with the ball to score.

The rest of the game was a mixed bag for Bronny, who earned his first flagrant foul after accidentally undercutting Suns forward Jalen Bridges on a fast break, but Knecht had what Redick described as a "supernatural" performance to steal the spotlight by scoring 25 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to lead L.A. to a win.

Knecht's efforts were necessary, in part, because of Bronny's defense on Suns' second-year guard Collin Gillespie. Similarly sized at 6-1, 195 pounds, Gillespie went right at Bronny when the Lakers rookie tried to pick him up full court late in the fourth, beating him off the dribble and slicing into the lane to finish with a reverse layup to put Phoenix up by six with 1:09 to go. In the extra session, Gillespie connected on a corner 3 against an ineffective closeout by Bronny and shot him a gratuitous smile to rub it in.

After the game, LeBron was walking toward the loading dock to board the bus when he crossed paths with his former teammate, James Jones, who now leads the Suns' front office.

Walking alongside Jones was his 17-year-old son, named after him: James Dylan Jones. Like Bronny, he goes by a nickname, JD. Unlike Bronny, he can stroll through the Suns' arena without stirring up fans (and cameras).

"What's up, nephew?!" LeBron said, placing one hand on each of JD's shoulders. "They don't stop growing."

Jones, who LeBron once called "my favorite player of all time," checked in with the Lakers star.

"What have you been up to?" Jones asked.

"Teaching this little [man] here," LeBron said, nodding his head back toward the visitors locker room where Bronny was getting dressed. "Training his ass."

Oct. 18, San Francisco -- a dunk for his troubles

The visitors locker room at Chase Center felt decidedly more like a watch party for the New York Yankees' and Cleveland Guardians' American League Championship Series game than a sanctuary to prepare for an NBA game as the Lakers readied for their preseason finale.

With all five starters out for rest, banter filled the room.

One minute, Davis was asking the series score of the National League Championship Series.

"If the Dodgers win the World Series," he said, "that means we're winning the championship too." (Referring to how the Lakers and Dodgers both last won the title within weeks of each other in October 2020.)

The next minute, LeBron was preaching the importance of being able to do more than score on the basketball court -- at Christian Wood's expense.

"I'm a bucket," Wood argued.

LeBron immediately countered, bringing up the Lakers' game against the Dallas Mavericks' last November when Wood went 0-for-1 against his former team in what was supposed to be a revenge game after the franchise let Wood walk in free agency.

"Can't have no donut and be a bucket," LeBron chirped.

"C'mon, I was on one leg!" Wood pleaded. "I'm a bucket. It's in my blood."

Eventually, the conversation turned to the game.

As the different lineup permutations were being tossed around, Bronny's name was mentioned.

Bronny, wearing headphones and looking down at his phone in one hand while twisting out tendrils of his hair with the other, was oblivious.

"He's locked in," Olivari said, before correctly predicting an in-game poster out of Bronny.

In the third quarter, Cam Reddish poked the ball away from Golden State guard De'Anthony Melton. Olivari corralled it and pushed ahead, igniting a break for L.A.

Bronny streaked down the right wing, past the backpedaling Melton and Buddy Hield, and threw his right hand in the air, signaling for a lob.

Olivari obliged, hoisting the ball up and Bronny finished with an alley-oop flush, the first dunk of any kind of his career.

He finished the game with 17 points on 7-for-17 shooting, adding 4 rebounds and 3 steals in 35 minutes, the most points by a 55th pick in a rookie preseason since Mike Taylor scored 21 for the L.A. Clippers in 2008.

Said Bronny: "It was just a great feeling to go out there and not think as much as I do -- and just play."

Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani's 50th home run ball from this major league season sold for $4.392 million at auction, including buyer's premium, shattering the record paid for a baseball -- or any sports ball, for that matter.

The previous most expensive baseball was Mark McGwire's record-breaking 70th home run ball from the 1998 MLB season, which Spawn creator Todd McFarlane paid $3 million for in early 1999.

Ohtani's 50th home run ball cemented him as the only player in the sport's history to eclipse 50 home runs and 50 steals in a season. The ball, consigned to Goldin Auctions, marked one of the most anticipated modern, game-used memorabilia auctions in recent memory; Goldin's site shows photos of the MLB-scuffed baseball and highlights the MLB Authentication hologram number "431048" and validation code "WSG."

"Shohei Ohtani made history with this baseball, and now, with the highest sale price for any ball ever sold, this legendary piece of sports memorabilia has made history again," Ken Goldin, founder and CEO of Goldin, said in a statement. "We received bids from around the world, a testament to the significance of this iconic collectible and Ohtani's impact on sports, and I'm thrilled for the winning bidder."

The auction house did not identify the buyer.

Though litigation over the ball's initial ownership is playing out in Florida, an agreement was reached on Oct. 7 between the auction house and "all parties" that allowed the auction to proceed and conclude apart from the lawsuits filed over the ball's ownership.

According to a statement from Goldin Auctions, the agreement stipulated that all parties vying for ownership of the ball "have agreed to convey any and all of their ownership interests in the 50/50 ball to the winner of the auction, giving the winner full assurance that they will receive free and clear title to the 50/50 ball."

The nearly $4.4 million paid for the Ohtani ball will go into an account until the ownership lawsuits are resolved.

Ohtani and the Dodgers will face the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday.