Lakers News: LA Insider Predicts Team's Record Through First Month of Season

The Athletic's Jovan Buha doesn't exactly have a rosy outlook for the Lakers in the first month of the season.

Earlier this week, the NBA released the full schedule for the 2022-2023 season. Now, unlike the NFL, there's zero mystery to how many times the Lakers are going to play a team throughout the season. Hence why all of the schedule leaks were somewhat comical earlier this month. What does add intrigue, is when the Lakers which teams in the greater context of the schedule. 

For this coming season, LA has a grueling start, including an Opening night matchup in San Francisco against the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors, followed by a matchup with Clippers two days later.

The Athletic's Jovan Buha noted just how challenging the start of the season will be for a Lakers team desperate to re-enter the contender conversation.

"The Lakers’ start to the season is rough. On the one hand, 10 of their first 15 games are at home. On the other hand, they play the Warriors, Clippers (twice), Nuggets (twice), Timberwolves, Pelicans, Cavaliers and Nets during that stretch. The Lakers desperately need to get off to a good start to cleanse the sour taste of last season, but it seems realistic that they’ll be hovering at or below .500 through the first month of the season."

Playing two-thirds of their games at home is beneficial, and who knows what the Nets roster, and the Lakers roster for that matter, could look like by mid-November, but there is a chance that LA is a .500 team through the first four weeks of the coming season.