The Los Angeles Lakers will kick-off their first playoff series since the 2012-13 season on Tuesday, August 18th. The Trail Blazers and Grizzlies just finished playing their first play-in game, with the Trail Blazers prevailing in an exciting game to set them up to take on the Lakers in three days. It’s been a series that has been anticipated basically since the bubble began, and below you can see the full schedule of the entire first-round series (reported by Ryan Ward).
Game 1 – Tuesday, August 18th (Home) – 6:00 p.m. PST – Spectrum SportsNet, TNT
Game 2 -Thursday, August 20th (Home) – 6:00 p.m. PST – Spectrum SportsNet, ESPN
Game 3 – Saturday, August 22nd (AWAY) – 5:30 p.m. PST – ABC
Game 4 – Monday, August 24th (AWAY) – 6:00 p.m. PST – Spectrum SportsNet, TNT
*Game 5 – Wednesday, August 26th (Home) – Time TBD – Spectrum SportsNet, TBD
*Game 6 – Friday, August 28th (AWAY) – Time TBD – Spectrum SportsNet, TBD
*Game 7 – Sunday, August 30th (Home) – Time TBD – Spectrum SportsNet, TBD
The Portland Trail Blazers capped off an insane bubble run with a nail-biting win against the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday, earning the right to be the 8th seed in the Western Conference. They’ve received MVP-type performances from Damian Lillard lately, who the Lakers will have to gameplan against. Lillard gave the Lakers problems last time they played each other, dropping 48 points.
The Lakers’ time in the bubble has been less-than-fun, heading into the playoffs after posting a 3-5 record in their eight seeding games. LeBron James’ offense has looked slow, Anthony Davis either has a great game or a terrible game, and the team did not make threes until the very end. Still, LeBron James teams tend to limp into the playoffs, usually turning it on for easy first-round wins once they do.
Get ready, Lakers fans. The road to number 17 starts Tuesday.
