The wildfire situation in California appears to finally be heading toward a resolution, so teams like the Los Angeles Lakers can rest a little easier knowing that there isn’t any immediate danger in their local neighborhoods.
The wildfires were incredibly destructive, particularly in the Pacific Palisades area where head coach JJ Redick and his family lost the home they had been renting since moving to Los Angeles. Fortunately, Redick and his loved ones weren’t harmed and even Austin Reaves noted his head coach was as good as could be despite losing his home.
Due to the wildfire situation, the NBA was forced to step in and postpone the Lakers’ game against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, Jan. 11. Aside from Los Angeles, the New Orleans Pelicans were forced to have their game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday, Jan. 22 postponed due to poor weather conditions.
Following the postponements, the league finally released scheduling updates for the postponed games as well additional changes to accommodate the new schedule, via NBA Communications:
The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/OZ2y01xoUw
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 28, 2025
The Lakers will now play the Spurs on Monday, March 17 while the Pelicans will see the Bucks on Sunday, April 6. Also, Los Angeles will now play Milwaukee on Thursday, March 20 instead of Tuesday, March 18.
For the Lakers, the schedule change will now have them playing six games in eight nights with two of the games on the road. The rescheduled San Antonio game becomes the second night of a back-to-back, with Los Angeles set to play the Phoenix Suns the night before. Fortunately, both games are at home at Crypto.com Arena.
Following the back-to-back against the Suns and Bucks, the Lakers will have one day off before playing the Denver Nuggets and Bucks in another back-to-back set.
This is going to be the toughest stretch for the purple and gold this season given the number of games and the quality of opponents they’ll see. While there wasn’t much else to be done given the wildfires situation, it’s still a tough reality that Los Angeles will need to try and weather as best as possible.
Lakers’ LeBron James discusses challenges of having to evacuate due to wildfires
Several members on the Lakers roster were affected by the wildfires, including LeBron James who was forced to evacuate. James discussed the challenges of having to evacuate and still play games, noting he felt off personally.
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