LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers (Getty Images/AFP)
NEW YORK – The defending champion Los Angeles Lakers will open the NBA pre-season schedule against the Los Angeles Clippers as part of a 49-game exhibition slate announced Friday.
The league booked tuneup games from December 11-19 ahead of the planned December 22 start of the 2020-21 campaign to be played at team arenas.
Each club will have at least two pre-season contests, one at home and one on the road, and no more than four.
The Lakers will play the maximum, with home games against the Clippers on December 11 and 13 and road games at Phoenix on December 16 and 18.
The Toronto Raptors, set to play home games in Tampa, Florida, due to Covid-19 restrictions involving US-Canada travel, will entertain Miami at Tampa in a December 18 pre-season contest.
The upcoming season schedule, featuring 72 games for each club, has not yet been released. It will be revealed in two segments, the first including games from December 22-March 4 and the next from March 11-May 16 to be released late in the first-half portion of the season.