DeMar DeRozan had a strong debut for the Kings on Thursday and scored 26 points and eight rebounds in nearly 43 minutes of play, with Sacramento scoring eight more points than Minnesota during his time on the court.

Still, the two-point loss to the Timberwolves showed that there will be an adjustment period for the Kings as they adjust to DeRozan’s presence, writes Chris Biderman of The Sacramento Bee. After ranking third in the NBA with 39.3 three-point attempts per game last season, Sacramento allowed only 29 attempts from beyond the arc in Thursday’s game, significantly fewer than Minnesota’s 50 three-point attempts.

“His game is in the middle of the field” Kings head coach Mike Brown said of DeRozan. “He’s an elite guy in the midfield, so he’s going to take a lot of shots, and that’s probably going to take a toll on (three-point shooting).”

Still, the Kings are confident it won’t take them long to get used to DeRozan’s style of play and believe having another offensive weapon capable of breaking through defenses and his own shot will ultimately pay off as the 35-year-old can.

“He can carry out an offensive all by himself.” teammate Kevin Huerter said. “Sometimes you can just give him the ball and he can go. He doesn’t need plays being worked out for him. As he becomes more and more comfortable, we will feel much better. … It’s game one, so we’re early. It will obviously take some time. Everyone is still figuring it all out.”

Here’s more from the Pacific:

• Anthony Davis dominated for the second time in a row Lakers‘ Friday’s win over Phoenix, scored a game-high 35 points and increased his season tally to 71 through two games (both wins). Head Coach JJ RedickThe plan to make Davis the focus of LA’s offense is working as intended so far LeBron James. “It is very important that he is the center of our attention every night.” James said, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “We know what he’s going to do defensively, but offensively we need to find him in multiple spots on the field throughout the game. And we did that in two games.”
• Was asked during his post-match media session on Friday if he will be fit for the second game of the season LakersIn Saturday’s back-to-back game against Sacramento, LeBron told reporters, including McMenamin, that his goal was not to miss a single one of the team’s 82 regular-season contests. “I plan to play every game” said James, the oldest active player in the NBA.
• Although the Suns Although they couldn’t get a win against the Lakers on Friday, they got an encouraging performance from the rookie Ryan Dunn. During his time at Virginia, Dunn was known as a quality defender, but not a particularly good shooter. He hit three of five attempts from three-point range and was plus-8 in his 14 minutes. Dunn’s progress as a shooter is the result of “a lot of hard work,” he told Sportskeeda’s Mark Medina in an in-depth interview. “I still have the confidence to keep shooting, even if there are some nights it doesn’t fall and other nights it might.” said Dunn, who also spoke with Medina about his first impressions of the NBA, meeting some of his longtime basketball idols and his goals for his rookie season.