Lakers Open NBA Schedule With Three Games In Three Nights

For years, the L.A. Lakers' schedule has been soft early as the necessity to spend a long stretch of time in March on the road due to the Grammys has skewed the slate. There will be no such arguing about early cupcakes this season, as Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times reports that the Lakers will open the schedule with three games in three nights, also known as the dreaded back-to-back-to-back. Kobe Bryant's knees will surely love that.

The Lakers will host the Chicago Bulls in the third game of the league's five-game national TV slate on December 25. Bresnahan reports that the Lakers will then fly to Sacramento to take on the Kings on December 26, and then to Salt Lake to face the Utah Jazz on December 27. All the while, the team will miss Andrew Bynum, who was suspended five games for a nasty flagrant foul on J.J. Barea during the Lakers' Game 4 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Semifinals in May. (That Mavs win finished a sweep of the Lakers.)