The Los Angeles Lakers are starting the 2018-19 NBA season on the road by taking on the Portland Trail Blazers. That LeBron James wouldn’t make his Lakers debut at home was a surprising revelation.
We dive into that on this episode of the Lakers Nation News Feed with Trevor Lane and Hannah Kulik. James’ debut is one of the major storylines to start the new NBA season, so it was surprising to not only see the Lakers playing their first game on the road, but also not participating in Opening Night.
In fact, the Lakers won’t take on the Blazers until the third night of NBA basketball, leaving fans waiting that much longer to see James play a regular-season game for his new team.
Not only is the timing a bit strange but the opponent is as well. After largely keeping the same team together that flamed out in the first round of the playoffs last season, the Trail Blazers don’t offer the kind of marquee matchup that the Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics, or Houston Rockets would.
That said, Portland does own a 15-game winning streak over the Lakers and the two teams did meet in the Las Vegas Summer League championship game for the second year in a row. So perhaps the NBA is looking to capitalize on that.
Additionally, James posted photos of himself in a Lakers uniform to his Instagram account, sending fans into a frenzy. We break down the excitement and all of the ins and outs of the schedule on this episode, to listen just click the player above.
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