PALM DESERT, Calif. – It might have come right after his turnover and during Game 1 of the preseason instead of Game 7 of the NBA Finals, but Bronny James had a chase block of his own in his Los Angeles Lakers debut Friday with his father, LeBron James, sat on the bench to witness it.

Bronny finished with two points on 1-for-6 shooting in the Lakers’ 124-107 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves to open their six-game exhibition series, but he also led the team with three blocked shots in 16 minutes while added one. rebound and one assist.

The first block came less than a minute into his first shift to start the second quarter when the Wolves’ Nickeil Alexander-Walker stole Bronny’s pass to D’Angelo Russell and shot across the court toward the hoop.

The Lakers’ No. 55 didn’t give up the play, sprinting to catch up to the 6-foot-2 Alexander-Walker and, despite being 6-2, easily jumped high enough to swat the attempt away from behind.

Lakers coach JJ Redick said Bronny earned the rotation minutes after a strong performance in the first week of training camp.

“As a coaching staff, we talked about Bronny before the game when we were going through our rotation matrix, and he had some really good days in August and September,” Redick said. “He has had three very good days this week. We are very happy with his progress.”

While Bronny didn’t drop his first bucket until there were only 56.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter and many fans were already leaving Acrisure Arena, the Lakers’ “home” crowd in Palm Desert welcomed the driving layup still with a loud cheer.

The rest of his performance on offense – missing a back-rim float, sailing a baseline pull-up completely over the rim, getting blocked at the rim, coming up short on a long 3 and failing to connect on a 20-foot jumper — showed how much work still needs to be done, but Redick focused on Bronny’s defensive impact that was already evident.

“He can do some things defensively at his size that are really unique and I think he can be a really disruptive defender,” Redick said. “That manifested itself. On the offensive side, he’s still figuring out who he is. That’s our job as a player development program to build him in.”

“But honestly, he’s so easy to coach. He’s got a great soul. And he’s just got great energy. I enjoy being around him. I’m rooting for him. He’s a good player that we would like to have in our club.” program.”

LeBron did not play Friday, with Redick resting the 22-year veteran after competing for USA Basketball at the Paris Olympics.

However, Redick said he expects James to see action on Sunday when the Lakers play the Phoenix Suns, which could be the first time father and son are in uniform together.