Mike BresnahanVerified account@Mike_Bresnahan 4m4 minutes ago Barring last-minute changes, Lakers open the season at home vs. Minnesota. Why Minnesota? No. 1 pick vs. No. 2, Towns vs. Russell.
Very winnable game I like it. Also we better in enjoy Kobe vs. KG because that won't happen that many more times.
The "old days" NBA they played 3 in a row 4 or 5 times a season. Back to back is kind of laughable as a reason for poor play. If Kareem could play 3 in a row 4 times a year and come in 2nd in MVP voting at age 37 then I think a any group of supposedly better trained players today can play a few back to backs.
MIN is a better team than they showed last year because of all the injuries, definitely not a cake walk. Rubio's defense could give Russell some problems, but with those two on the court we are guaranteed to see some fantastic passes.
KEVIN DING @KevinDing 3m3 minutes ago Lakers and Clippers are set to play each other on Christmas, I'm told.
I don't understand why it's laughable just because few people (or in this case, one of the best players of all-time) can play well under these circumstances?. That year (37-year-old Kareem), the Lakers were 14-9 on the second night of back-to-backs. That's good, but on all other nights, they were a much more impressive 48-11. It was the same story next year. They were 13-9 on the second night of back-to-backs. They were 49-11 on all other nights. Clearly, back-to-backs were affecting them on some level. If you can also lessen the toll on their bodies and decrease the chances of injuries (even if it's a minimal decrease), why wouldn't you want that?
They did play a b2b2b in January, winning all three of them. Leading up to that one, they played 2 in 5 days. After that game, they had another game two days later, but then they didn't play for another seven days. That works out to 7 games in 17 days. I can't find another b2b2b in that season.
My thoughts on b2b: if you want to see the best quality basketball, play every other day. We can make it work. Last year the Lakers' season spanned 169 days. You can fit in the All-Star Break, have them play basically every other game, inserting one extra day of rest for a period of interleague play. With 82 games, that's 164 days + ASB + a couple of fudge days. It's basically the current schedule.
http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/lal First month of schedule on ESPN. Mike Trudell on Time Warner 5 to go over Lakers schedule
last year i flew to NYC to see Kobe at MSG and he got hurt 10 days before the game. Now that I live here, I'm pumped they're playing the Nets and the Knicks in the first week of the season. Less chance of Kobe being out *knocks on wood*
