Phoenix Suns: 5 must-watch games from 2018-19 NBA schedule
3. Oct. 24 vs. Los Angeles Lakers
It won’t take long for the Suns to get a taste of the new-look Los Angeles Lakers. LeBron James, Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee, Michael Beasley…even without the “Lakers youngsters vs. Suns youngsters” angle, there’s enough personality on the Meme Team alone to make this game worth the price of admission.
From a talent standpoint, Los Angeles has Phoenix beat pretty soundly. The good news is this will only be the Lakers’ fourth game of the season, so their chemistry will still be a work-in-progress. King James alone is enough to lift his squad to victory over these Suns, but perhaps Igor Kokoskov will be able to reach his team quickly and make this one more interesting.
The bad news, unfortunately, is the Lakers open the season with a road game against the Portland Trail Blazers (the 3-seed in the West last year) and home games against the Rockets (the 1-seed in the West last year) and the San Antonio Spurs (never count out Gregg Popovich, especially with DeMar DeRozan on board). L.A. could still be searching for its first win of the season at this point.
It sounds ludicrous to suggest that about any LeBron team, but don’t forget, the 2014-15 Cleveland Cavaliers started 1-3 in their first four games after the King returned. If the Lakers come into Talking Stick Resort Arena with a losing record, you can be guaranteed the intensity of this formerly great Suns-Lakers rivalry will be ratcheted up a notch.