Los Angeles Lakers: 3 takeaways from released games

3. Opening week

The first two contests of the season for the Los Angeles Lakers keeps them on the Pacific coast to take on a pair of top three seeds from last season’s Western Conference.

As noted on the previous slide, the Lakers travel north to take on the Portland Trail Blazers on Oct. 18. Portland is being labelled as a prime regression candidate from their 3-seed finish last season after losing Ed Davis and Shabazz Napier with no real additions to the squad.

LeBron returns to the scene of the crime of his best dunk from a year ago, when he baptized Jusuf Nurkic into the King’s career highlight reel:

Outside of that dunk, LeBron has struggled in Portland. He hasn’t won in the Pacific northwest since his time with the Miami Heat, and his new team failed to win its matchup in Portland last season. This is a strong first test for the Lakers in a tough environment against a consistent playoff team.

Their opening week concludes with the hosting of the Houston Rockets. This will be a step up from Portland, and is an early contest to see how they stack up with one of the best teams in the NBA.

I wouldn’t read too much into these games, and wouldn’t be shocked if they started out 0-2. The Western Conference is a bloodbath every year and facing the No. 3-seed then 1-seed to begin a season with plenty of new faces is a tall order. But they will be entertaining to say the least.