The Los Angeles Lakers announced that their preseason game on Oct. 15 against the Milwaukee Bucks at Crypto.com Arena will now be played at 4 p.m. PT.
The original start time of the game was 5 p.m. PT.
The Lakers are slated to play six preseason games total, with two of them at home in Los Angeles. The purple and gold were initially scheduled to play five preseason games, though they announced that they were adding one more against the Sacramento Kings on Oct. 11 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
Los Angeles will start their preseason schedule on Oct. 7 against the Golden State Warriors and will play every other day until their Oct. 15 game against Milwaukee. Following the game against the Bucks, the Lakers will have three days off before their preseason finale against the Phoenix Suns on Oct. 19 at Acrisure Arena in Greater Palm Springs.
Head coach Darvin Ham will likely play his starters limited minutes throughout the preseason in order to preserve their legs for the 2023-24 season. Normally, preseason is an opportunity for rookies and training camp invites to get reps and make a case for a roster spot and that should be the expectation again.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis should see some run, though the two stars will likely sit most games as they both dealt with foot injuries in the 2022-23 campaign that they’ve been rehabbing over the summer. However, James and Davis should be 100 percent healthy by the time training camp rolls around at the end of September.
Although winning preseason games doesn’t matter much, fans would still prefer to see the team compete and treat the games seriously. Avoiding injuries is the number one priority, but there’s value to be had playing against other teams.
All the teams the Lakers will see during the preseason project as playoff squads and should be worthy tune ups ahead of the regular season. With a full offseason and training camp under their belts, it’ll be interesting to see how they fare before the games count.
Richard Sherman suggests Anthony Davis-Giannis Antetokounmpo swap
Last season felt like the first year that Los Angeles was transitioning the team over to Davis who assumed more of a leadership role. Davis has the potential to be the best player on a title team and next season is his chance to really cement that thought.
However, analysts like Richard Sherman believe that it would be in the Lakers’ best interest to swap Davis with another superstar in Antetokounmpo.
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