Lakers News: LA Starting 5 For Marquee Madison Square Garden Matchup Revealed

An All-Star has been promoted off the bench.

Your Los Angeles Lakers are getting two pivotal reinforcements tonight as they square off against the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden, in a nationally broadcast bout set to tip off at 4:30 p.m. PT.

19-time All-Star Lakers power forward LeBron James, just 117 points away from tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time NBA scoring record, will get that much closer tonight, when he returns from a one-game absence. All-Star LA center Anthony Davis is also back.

With Patrick Beverley out due to a sore left knee injury (never what you want to hear for a 34-year-old), Darvin Ham has opted to tweak his starting lineup a tad, per Mike Trudell of Lakers.com.

6'3" Dennis Schröder will continue to start at point guard, 6'6" Troy Brown Jr. will be moved down to shooting guard (finally, a tall Lakers shooting guard this year!), 6'8" forward Rui Hachimura will be moved down to small forward, and 6'9" James and 6'10" Davis will fill out the frontcourt for Los Angeles tonight. 

I'm a bit surprised, I would have expected Lonnie Walker IV to return to the starting lineup in his third game back with LA, but Ham is clearly prioritizing size over shooting by keeping Brown and Hachimura in his first five. Walker is a more willing shooter than Brown, but Brown gives the Lakers a bit more defensive versatility.