Even since LeBron James and Anthony Davis went to the Los Angeles Lakers and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George went to the Los Angeles Clippers, the two teams have built a bit of a rivalry for city dominance.
The Clippers have dominated the head-to-head matchups, winning 11 straight over the Lakers since Ty Lue took over as head coach. The Lakers have a championship in 2020, however, something the Clippers have yet to achieve in their history.
Going into the 2023-24 season, both teams again have championship aspirations in a loaded Western Conference. That should make for more interesting head-to-head matchups with the first one coming on Nov. 1, per Shams Charania of The Athletic:
Two more key games on NBA season schedule:
🏀 Season opener: 76ers @ Bucks on Oct. 26
So that’s 76ers-Bucks and Suns-Lakers on first TNT Thursday.
🏀 First Lakers-Clippers matchup: Nov. 1 https://t.co/ID3A2AZVEk
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 11, 2023
The Lakers will be facing a gauntlet to begin their season as according to various reports, they will take on the defending champion Denver Nuggets on Opening Night in a Western Conference Finals rematch.
L.A. will then return home and host the Phoenix Suns in their first game at Crypto.com Arena, which will be a star-studded matchup as well with Phoenix adding Bradley Beal to its core of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton.
With that game taking place on Oct. 26, there likely will be one in between that and the Lakers’ first matchup with the Clippers on Nov. 1. If the Lakers don’t come out ready then they risk getting off to a slow start just like last season when they began 2-10 and had to dig themselves out of a hole all season.
There’s no doubt that everyone in the organization would like to avoid that so hopefully they take the preseason seriously to be ready to go from the jump in the regular season.
Lakers to host Celtics on Christmas Day
One of the Lakers’ other games that has been revealed is Christmas Day when they will be hosting the Boston Celtics.
Other Christmas Day matchups include the Milwaukee Bucks against the New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers against the Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks against the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors against the Nuggets.
The Lakers are the middle game so it will likely tip off around 2:30 p.m. PT at Crypto.com Arena.
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