The 2022-23 schedule for all 30 NBA teams has finally been released, and it allows fans the opportunity to start marking their calendars and planning around the can’t miss games on the schedule. While not every team shares the same goals for the 2022-23 season, they all have games where fans will be circling dates and trying to make sure they’re in the building for or at least able to watch on TV, and here we are going to highlight five such games for each team.
Here, we will glance at the always interesting Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers flopped to a 33-win performance last season, falling short of preseason expectations in a stark manner. Some of those struggles can be explained by injury concerns for Anthony Davis and LeBron James, but the Lakers face the real potential of floundering even at full strength after what transpired a season ago. Russell Westbrook remains on the roster, but the Lakers overhauled much of the supporting cast. Malik Monk, Carmelo Anthony, Kent Bazemore and others have exited the roster, with Lonnie Walker, Thomas Bryant, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damian Jones, Troy Brown Jr., and second-round pick Max Christie stepping into the void.
The Lakers always command attention, but this year’s club will be quite interesting every step of the way, often showcasing itself on national television against high-profile opponents.
October 18, 2022: at Golden State Warriors (TNT, 10 p.m. ET)
Well, this is a pretty good way to measure how you stack up against the league’s elite! The Lakers do not get any chance to ease into the 2022-23 campaign and the Darvin Ham era, as the team’s very first game is a trip to the Chase Center to play the Golden State Warriors on a night when the champions will get their rings. Add in that the Warriors won three of the four times these two teams played last season and this is an opportunity to find out right away what this Lakers team is. And if not…
October 20, 2022: Los Angeles Clippers (TNT, 10 p.m. ET)
…they’ll get a chance two days later on their home floor. The Clippers might end up being the best team in basketball this year, depending on how Kawhi Leonard looks when he takes the floor for the first time since getting hurt in the 2020-21 postseason. So, basically, to start the season, the Lakers get matchups against the two teams with the best odds (as of this writing) to win the Western Conference. We’ll find out awfully quickly exactly where this team is, how far it needs to go to become a top team in the West, and more importantly, if a pair of losses to start the year causes some of the cracks we saw last year to reappear and grow even larger.
November 30, 2022: Portland Trail Blazers (NBA TV, 10:30 p.m. ET)
An inauspicious game in November, yes, but also, this is game number 20 on Los Angeles’ schedule. By this point, we are going to know with some confidence what this Lakers team is and where they sit in the Western Conference hierarchy. After the game, they’re going to hop on a plane, head to Milwaukee, and kick off an Eastern Conference road trip with complete understanding of whether or not they need to make any sort of move (or, if all goes right, if they’re ready to take on all challengers in their quest for a title). Portland’s a tricky matchup in its own right, too, as this is one of the teams that missed the play-in tournament altogether last year that also has aspirations of making the playoffs this time around. L.A. finds itself in the same boat.
February 11, 2023: at Golden State Warriors (ABC, 8:30 p.m. ET)
The NBA has not yet announced a trade deadline for the 2023 season, but we can probably estimate that it’ll be around Feb. 9, which is the Thursday the week before the All-Star break. While the Lakers have a game that night, if they make any big moves on deadline day, it stands to reason that the first game where they could potentially play is that Saturday against the Golden State Warriors. But even if there isn’t a huge trade at the deadline, L.A.’s second road trip to San Francisco of the year to take on the defending champions should serve as an excellent test of how things have gone for them up to that point and what the group of players they’ll hope to ride to a playoff berth are capable of doing.
March 12, 2023: New York Knicks (ESPN, 9 p.m. ET)
Here are the Lakers’ final 15 games: New York, at New Orleans, at Houston, Dallas, Orlando, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Chicago, at Chicago, at Minnesota, at Houston, at Utah, at the Clippers, Phoenix, Utah. That is a relatively favorable schedule for the Lakers down the stretch. The team was horrendous down the home stretch last season — Los Angeles lost 18 of its final 24 games, which destroyed any hope they had of sneaking into the postseason via the play-in tournament. This time around, they have a ton of home games, a number of matchups with rebuilding teams, and a chance to end the regular season on a high note heading into the postseason … assuming they’re capable of taking advantage of it and make the playoffs.