The Los Angeles Lakers are heading into a very important season for the future of the franchise and as questions come up about Kobe Bryant and whether he will return to full strength for the start of the season, the team is taking a world hopping trip for the preseason to China, where they will play preseason games against the Golden State Warriors, including on Tuesday starting at 7:30 AM in a game that will be airing on NBA TV in the United States from the MasterCard Center in Beijing.
The team comes into the season after losing Dwight Howard to the Houston Rockets and Metta World Peace to the NY Knicks and there are plenty of new faces on the roster to mix in with Bryant, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash, as Chris Kaman, Wesley Johnson and Nick Young were signed in the offseason. The Warriors should be a good team for the Lakers to match up with in China, as they are built like other teams in the western conference and they should be one squad that the Lakers will have to battle to make the playoffs, especially after signing Andre Iguodala.
The Lakers and the Warriors had to deal with long flights to China and they will play two exhibition games in the country for the preseason. The Lakers started the preseason with a win against the Warriors before losing to the Nuggets and then the team defeated Denver to improve to 2-1 in the preseason before dropping a game to the Sacramento Kings in Las Vegas and now heading into the tw games in China they are 2-2 with four more to play. The team plays two against Golden State and the will return home to play against the Utah Jazz to finish out the preseason.
After opening the preseason with a loss to the Lakers, the Warriors rebounded with a win at home against the Sacramento Kings before losing to the Utah Jazz. The team is now 1-2 in the preseason heading into the games against the Lakers and the first game will be on Tuesday and airing in the US in the morning at 7:30 AM on NBA TV and streaming on NBA.com. After playing two against the Lakers, the team will be on the road against the Sacramento Kings and then will finish against the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Lakers have plenty to work out in China and the biggest question for the season will be the health of Kobe Bryant as he comes back from Achilles surgery and whether he can be back to full strength. The team has age questions with Pau Gasol, Bryant and Steve Nash and they also need to replace their leading rebounder, blocker and leader in steals with Dwight Howard and World Peace. Bryant led the team in scoring and Nash led the team in assists and the Lakers ended up finishing last season third in the Pacific division with a 45-37 record, finishing two games behind the Golden State Warriors, who upset the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs, while the Lakers were swept by the San Antonio Spurs.