The Los Angeles Lakers have a few big games early on the schedule. Jordan Clarkson believes that they will be on the right side of those games.
Coming into the 2017-18 season, the Los Angeles Lakers are hoping to improve from last season. With some good acquisitions in offseason like Brook Lopez and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the Lakers are certainly better on paper.
Even though the Lakers are better, the Western Conference is going shaping up to be extremely difficult this season. Even though the Lakers have a much-improved roster, it still might not help them reach the postseason.
In October, the Lakers will have a few big games on the schedule to start the season. Arguably the biggest will be on opening night against the Los Angeles Clippers. Jordan Clarkson isn’t a new face on the Lakers, which means he knows what games against the Clippers mean. Recently, Clarkson talked about what he expects from his team on opening night. Here’s what Clarkson said on Spectrum Sports via Eric Avakian of LakersNation.com.
"“It means a lot, especially for it to be the first game. Battle of L.A. is always a big game, so it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be exciting to play in that game, get a win and have bragging rights.”"
As a playoff team last season, the Clippers will be a good early test for the Lakers. This offseason, the Clippers did lose Chris Paul, but they were able to get quite a nice package back from the Houston Rockets.
With one of the deepest rosters that we have recently seen the Clippers have, they can still be a playoff team in the Western Conference. Even though Los Angeles will always be a Lakers town, it has been the Clippers that have been the better team on the court.
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Opening night will be a big one in Los Angeles. If the Lakers are truly going to be a better team this season, beating the Clippers would be a good step in the right direction. The Clippers have been dominating the games against the Lakers in recent years. Clarkson believes that the new talent on the team will help change that on opening night.