Lakers Schedule News: Lakers’ regular season opener is home game vs. Clippers

The Los Angeles Lakers will open the 2017-2018 NBA season hosting the LA Clippers on Oct. 19, reports Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times. The NBA has since made it official, and the season opener will be aired on TNT at 7:30 p.m. PT.

The hype will be real when these teams step on the court to open their seasons, with Clippers-Lakers games delivering a solid crowd atmosphere when they compete as of late. That should be no different when Lakers fans are watching Ball play his first regular season minutes, and Clippers fans move all-in on Blake Griffin being their unquestioned franchise star.

This will be the third time in the past 20 seasons that the Lakers opened the regular season against the Clippers, last happening in 2013. The purple and gold emerged victorious in both of those season openers and will look to make it a hat trick this time around.

The Clippers and Lakers are both setting upon new eras. Chris Paul made his way to the Houston Rockets, while Lonzo Ball is the new franchise point guard in Los Angeles. It’s an exciting time for Lakers fans, while Clippers fans may be feeling a bit nervous without Paul as their guiding hand.

The NBA is slowly releasing the regular season schedule, expected to drop the full calendar sometime next week. The league is handing out some goodies to hold fans over for the time being, highlighting a few marquee moments of the year to whet our appetites Thursday afternoon on NBA TV.

Schedule leaks were bound to happen in the hours leading up to it, though, and we now know where the Lakers’ 82-game journey begins.