As you may have seen us do last week, we played with the remaining schedule to show how a 70-game schedule might look based on reports that the NBA ideally wants to get to that mark in order to uphold their regional television deals. But over the weekend, The Athletic’s Shams Charania outlined the two regular season proposals, a 72-game season or a 76-game season, among other options, including using the standings of March 12 and going straight into the playoffs.
For the purposes of this exercise, we will assume that the NBA has elected to have regular season games in some form. We will use the same rules that we established the last time, with the primary one being to preserve the four-game regular season series between division opponents, just to have a clear guideline by which to finish the schedule. After that, we will prioritize trying to make sure everyone finishes their season series in conference. If they are doing this at a single site, they can also mix conferences in order to meet the 76-game schedule.
Game 64 – vs. Houston Rockets
The Rockets were the next game on the schedule for the Lakers, March 12, the day after the NBA was postponed. The Lakers have only played the Rockets twice before this season and another team on the schedule, Oklahoma City, has already played the Lakers three times. The Rockets also threw down on the Lakers in their last meeting, so this one should be fun to watch, rust and all.
Game 65 vs. Utah Jazz
The Lakers have Utah twice on the schedule in the last few games, but they’ve already played them twice. We also skipped over a 4th Denver meeting that was ahead of the Jazz on the schedule, to see if we can go without it.
Game 66 vs. L.A. Clippers
The Lakers and Clippers need to finish their 4-game season series.
Game 67 and 68 vs. Sacramento Kings
The Kings are the first division opponent that the Lakers could face after quarantine. The Kings are also, in theory, still alive for the playoffs in the 70-game format, trailing Memphis by 3.5 games with six games left on their schedule.
Game 69 vs. Phoenix Suns
The Suns have been a scrappy team this year but faded later on in the season. They are, however, a division opponent.
Game 70 vs. Golden State Warriors
The last division opponent that hasn’t gotten a full a four-game series. Also, a little Steph vs. LeBron exhibition never hurt anybody.
72-Game Season
Game 72 vs. Minnesota Timberwolves
The Lakers and Timberwolves have only played twice this season, so this will be their third meeting.
Game 73 vs. Denver Nuggets
This was a toss-up between Denver and Utah. I only picked the fourth match-up with Denver to diversify our hypothetical post-hiatus schedule. But as you can see, the 76-game schedule will give the Lakers the opportunity to finish their entire conference schedule.
76-Game Season
Game 74 vs. Utah Jazz
The Lakers have to finish their season series with Utah. This will be the 4th match-up and their second of the post-hiatus schedule we have created.
Game 7 vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
The Lakers will finish off their season series with the playoff-bound Thunder and Chris Paul.
Game 75 vs. Minnesota Timberwolves
The Lakers finish off their series with the team that occupies their former home.
Game 76 vs. Toronto Raptors
I chose this solely for entertainment purposes. The Lakers have seven remaining games against the Eastern Conference left on their schedule.
