Jacob Rude gave a sneak preview of the Lakers meeting the Houston Rockets to open the season. The full Laker schedule can be found at the Lakers link found here.
Interestingly enough, the Lakers start the regular season, meeting Phoenix at the end of back-to-back series. On Halloween night, they face the Clippers for a home game.
There are a lot of great match ups to be found throughout the season. The initial ten games look very tough, facing the Clippers, Rockets, Suns, Hornets, Warriors, Grizzlies, and Pelicans from the get go. That is a testament to just how strong the Western Conference is.
Mike Trudell of Lakers.com did a tremendous job breaking down the back-to-backs compared to last season.
"Rather than take my word for it, you’re better off checking out the graphical breakdowns of the month-by-month and day-by-day (L.A. always plays on Fridays and Sundays and never Saturdays) breakdowns in this space. But I will point out that L.A.’s older players are likely to appreciate the decrease from 19 back-to-backs in 2013-14 to just 16 this season, even if the Lakers get hit with consecutive tricky ones to start the season. In fact, L.A. plays on four of the first five NBA nights, with home/road B2B’s against HOU/PHX (Oct. 28/29) and LAC/GSW (Oct. 31, Nov. 1), good teams all. However, there are only two B2B’s in November and January, and one apiece in February and April, providing an always-helpful day of recovery after the vast majority of games. Last season, L.A. had at least two B2B’s in every month, and as many as four in January and March."
The complete schedule breakdown by Mike Trudell can be found on this link.
March 12th is the date I’m anticipating the most. That is when the Knicks meet the Lakers at Staples Center. Phil Jackson will have a great homecoming, as will Derek Fisher and Kurt Rambis. The Knicks will run the triangle offense. It will be a clash of Laker cultures.
We all look forward to an exciting season.