Lakers schedule takeaways: 15 back-to-back games could be a problem

The Lakers begin the 2023-24 NBA season with an opening-night road test against reigning champion Denver on Oct. 24. They then return home — but won’t stay there long.

In all, of the Lakers’ first 34 games, 19 will be played on the road, with additional miles potentially added still depending on how far they advance in November and December’s in-season tournament.

Coming off of a Western Conference finals appearance last season, the Lakers intend to advance even deeper in the postseason next spring. By the time they reach the season’s end, they will have been challenged by a slate ranked as the NBA’s fourth hardest by Positive Residual, a site that analyzes schedules.

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The schedule includes 80 of the Lakers’ 82 games, with the last two determined in early December by how they fare during the in-season tournament.

Key takeaways from the schedule:

Lakers star Anthony Davis, right, drives against Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun during Game 1 of the Western Conference finals in May.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

The Lakers’ strength of schedule rating partly owes to their seven games in which they will have a true advantage over their opponent in rest, and the 12 in which they will enter with less rest than their opponent. (For context: The league low for rest-advantage games is Houston’s five, its high Boston’s 16.)

They also will play 15 back-to-backs, as will eight other teams including the Clippers, to tie for the league high, in a year when every team will play at least 13.

The Lakers’ longest trips are a pair of six-game stretches, the first from Jan. 27 through Feb. 5 that spans both coasts, with games at Golden State, Houston, Atlanta, Boston, New York and Charlotte. Another lengthy trip begins March 27 at Milwaukee, with stops in Memphis, Indiana, Brooklyn and Toronto before concluding in Washington on April 3.

Given those trips, the Lakers will welcome a nearly unbroken stretch in Los Angeles from Feb. 26 until March 24, with the only trip in that span a visit to Sacramento on March 13.

For the Lakers to be among the eight teams that advance to the single-elimination knockout round of the inaugural in-season tournament, they must first qualify through group play. Those four games were announced Tuesday: Nov. 10 at Phoenix; Nov. 14 vs. Memphis; Nov. 17 at Portland and Nov. 21 vs. Utah.

The matchups on Nov. 14 and 21 will mark the first night of back-to-back games. The Lakers host Sacramento on Nov. 15, and Dallas on Nov. 22.

Lakers star LeBron James celebrates after scoring against the Golden State Warriors in Game 6 of the second round of the NBA playoffs.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

In July, LeBron James announced that he wasn’t done yet with his NBA career. That means national networks aren’t yet done showing as many of his Lakers games as possible, with 40 games set to be broadcast on either Turner Sports, NBA TV, ABC or ESPN. That number could increase based on how the Lakers fare in the in-season tournament.

In addition to the season-opening game in Denver, the Lakers will have another key national game on Christmas, hosting Boston.

This season marks the last that the Lakers and Clippers will share Crypto.com Arena before the Clippers’ move to their new Inglewood home. They will play one another four times: Nov. 1 and Jan. 7 in Lakers home games and Jan. 23 and Feb. 28 in Clippers home games.

The Lakers’ first look at No. 1 draft pick Victor Wembanyama and San Antonio comes Dec. 13 as part of a two-game road series against the Spurs. Wembanyama comes to Los Angeles for his first and only road game against the Lakers on Feb. 23. Chris Paul, Stephen Curry and Golden State visit L.A. on March 16 and April 9. Oh, and a reunion between James and Dillon Brooks, who minted himself as the all-time leading scorer’s latest playoff nemesis last spring? Brooks, now with Houston, visits Los Angeles on Nov. 19 and Dec. 2.