When James drove into the paint, he disrupted the 76ers' defensive formation and drew Harden's attention away from King Yi.
King Yi seized the chance and burst toward the basket.
James reached the hoop just as Embiid closed in to defend him.
King Yi slipped along the baseline and cut toward the basket, so James lobbed the ball straight off the backboard.
With Embiid in front of him, he threw it high.
Embiid realized the danger as soon as James let the ball go. He quickly stepped back and leaped high, trying to reach it.
But the ball sailed past his fingertips. At the same time, right behind him, a figure descended from above as if God had come down to earth.
He caught the ball one-handed in midair and slammed it down over Embiid.
Bam...
The thunderous impact rang through the arena.
The more than 12,000 fans erupted into cheers.
A posterizing dunk over Embiid right out of the gate.
What could get the crowd more excited than that?
"Yeah, the Double King Connection! We saw it on the very first play of the game."
"The connection between the old and new Kings is electric."
"I've been waiting so long to see this. Ever since I found out this summer that James was joining the Kings, I've been waiting for a moment like this. And today, I finally got to see it."
The reason they managed such a beautiful play was that King Yi and James had spent a season together on the Lakers.
There was no question about the chemistry between them.
James barely had to twitch his backside before King Yi knew what he was going to do.
The reason they looked so bad in the preseason wasn't that James and King Yi couldn't play well together.