The 2023-24 NBA regular season schedule was released on Thursday. Here are 10 things to know about the Los Angeles Lakers' upcoming slate.

10) Holidays

The Lakers will play on Christmas Day (vs. the Boston Celtics), New Year's Eve (at the New Orleans Pelicans), and MLK Day (vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder). They'll be off for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and New Year's Day.

9) Opening stretch

After generally favorable home-heavy starts the last couple of seasons (not that they took advantage), the Lakers will open with six of their first nine games on the road, five of which come against 2023 playoff teams. They'll start at the Denver Nuggets — the second straight season they'll attend Ring Night — then host the Phoenix Suns for their Crypto.com Arena opener. That matchup should be the first time we get to see Kevin Durant and LeBron James square off in an NBA game since … 2018!!

8) Back-to-backs

The schedule makers didn't do LeBron, Anthony Davis, and the Lakers any favors. After playing 12 back-to-backs in each of the last two seasons, the Lakers will have 15 B2Bs in 2023-24 — one more than the league average. 10 of those back-to-backs will include some type of travel in-between.

7) Rest disadvantage

Plus, the Lakers will be at a rest disadvantage more often than an advantage, per Spectrum's Mike Trudell:

“They play seven games when they’ll be determined to be the ‘fresh' team, and 12 as the ‘tired' team, plus 61 with an ‘even' designation. Fresh squads do not play the day before, and the opponent does, while tired teams do play the day before, and the opponent does not. Overall, that’s a net -5. Last season, the Lakers had a big advantage in that sense, as they were a +6 overall.”

Of course, how the Lakers manage LeBron and AD through all of this will be critical to their ability to contend in May and June.

6) Opponent frequency

The NBA In-Season Tournament (more on that momentarily) has slightly altered the frequency with which teams face in-conference rivals. Instead of facing 10 West foes four times a pop, the Lakers will play eight teams four times: the Suns, Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Oklahoma City Thunder.

They'll take on the remaining West squads (Denver, Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz) three times.

5) Longest road trip, home stand

As per usual, the Lakers' lengthiest stint away from Crypto.com Arena will be the annual Grammys road trip: From Jan. 27 – Feb. 5., they'll play six games in 10 days.

Their longest homestand will include six games across 11 days, beginning on Feb. 29.

4) Toughest stretch: Post-All-Star break

At first glance, the most challenging stretch of the Lakers' schedule — in terms of opponent — may come right after the All-Star break: at Warriors (Feb. 22), vs. Spurs (Feb. 23), at Suns (Feb. 25), at Clippers (Feb. 28), vs. Wizards (Feb. 29), vs. Nuggets (Mar. 2), vs. Thunder (Mar. 4), vs. Kings (Mar. 6), vs. Milwaukee Bucks (Mar. 8), vs. Timberwolves (Mar. 10), at Sacramento (Mar. 13), vs. Warriors (Mar. 16). Oof.

3) Miscellaneous

  • The Lakers will have the second-most nationally televised games (40, one behind the Warriors).
  • They'll play only four matinee games.
  • They'll play four Saturday home games (none last season), as well as six Friday night home games and seven on Sunday.

2) In-Season Tournament

Here's the Lakers' In-Season Tournament schedule for Group Play — announced earlier in the week. The Lakers are in West Group A. The games are included in the 82-game calendar.

  • Nov. 10: at Suns
  • Nov. 14: vs. Grizzlies
  • Nov. 17: at Blazers
  • Nov. 21: vs. Jazz

Two teams from each group qualify for the quarterfinals, which will be played on Dec. 4 and 5. The semifinals (in Las Vegas) will be on Dec. 7, with the championship match (also in Vegas) on Dec. 9. Teams who don't make it out of the group stage will have two TBD regular season games added on Dec. 6 and Dec. 8.

How the Lakers approach the inaugural event tournament will be fascinating to monitor. That Suns game, for instance, comes on the heels of two games in Florida and one in Houston.

1) Fun matchups

Besides the obvious — Nuggets, Warriors, Clippers, KD and the Suns, etc. — a few other dates stood out to me:

  • The Lakers will be at the Cleveland Cavaliers a few days after Thanksgiving. Who knows how many more times LeBron will play in his hometown region?
  • Two consecutive games in December vs. Victor Wembayana in San Antonio, sandwiched by a visit to Luka Doncic and a home game vs. the New York Knicks.
  • An extended six-game East Coast swing from Mar 26 – Apr. 3 could test the Lakers' fatigue level toward the end of the season.
  • We'll get our first LeBron vs. Dillon Brooks matchup nice and early, on Nov. 8.