Los Angeles Lakers: Breaking Down the 2018-19 Schedule
Rough Stretches and…More Rough Stretches for the Lakers
Those games mentioned are the ones that you’ll definitely want to be in front of the TV for. However, those are only 6 of the 82 games, and the Lakers will have to fight during every single one to make it in the extremely strong Western Conference.
There will be stretches in the season where things are going great for the Lakers, but of course, there will be some rough stretches too. Who knows if the Lakers will play the weird game of playing down to their competition’s level while playing up as well. Assuming that won’t happen, we can look at their opponents’ projected win totals for the 2018-19 season and determine which parts of the schedule will be the easiest and hardest on the Lakers.
It’ll be a jovial moment when the Lakers kick off the regular season and the fans get to see LeBron James lace up with the young core of Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, Lonzo Ball, and Josh Hart. The beginning of the season though, will be one of the roughest stretches of competition for the Lakers, specifically the first 11 games.
As mentioned above, the Lakers will play in Portland to kick off the season followed up by their home opener against the reigning number one seed Houston Rockets. The next nine games will finish an 11-game stretch to start the season that will be brutal on the Lakers. Those 11 games will be played against the Trail Blazers (twice), Rockets, Spurs (twice), Suns, Nuggets, Timberwolves (twice), Mavericks, and Raptors. Out of those eight teams, six are projected by Las Vegas to finish above .500 for the season. It will be a brutal initial test for a team that would love to have an easy start to the season. The Lakers roster will be mostly unfamiliar with playing with each other, since most of them are newcomers. Even with LeBron James on the team, the Lakers will need plenty of time to become comfortable with playing with each other to play at high level.
David Griffin, former Cavs general manager, recently spoke about his former team’s struggles initially with LeBron and a newly-formed team. He spoke about how they started 19-20, how that was just fine in the East (finished 53-29), but how the Lakers can’t afford to do that in the West and expect to survive. It’ll be important for them to come out the gates focused, and finish that 11 game stretch with their heads above water.