Read More: Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Kings, Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Lakers, Jan 3, 2012 7:30 PM PST

The Los Angeles Lakers will host the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night, in the midst of a busy time at Staples Center. The Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers along with the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL all have extended road trips at the beginning of February, dubbed the “Grammy road trip” as the venue prepares to host the annual music awards. That, coupled with an extra dense NBA schedule thanks to the lockout makes for many home games in January.

Tuesday is the sixth of 17 consecutive days with a sporting event at Staples Center:

• Thursday, December 29: Lakers beat the New York Knicks 99-82
• Friday, December 30: Clippers lost their home opener to the Chicago Bulls 114-101
• Saturday, December 31: Lakers beat the Nuggets in the afternoon 92-89, and the Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-1 at night
• Sunday, January 1: Clippers beat the Portland Trail Blazers 93-88
• Monday, January 2: Kings lost in a shootout 2-1 to the Colorado Avalanche
• Tuesday, January 3: Lakers host the Rockets
• Wednesday, January 4: Clippers host the Rockets
• Thursday, January 5: Kings host the Phoenix Coyotes
• Friday, January 6: Lakers host the Golden State Warriors
• Saturday, January 7: Kings host the Columbus Blue Jackets
• Sunday, January 8: Lakers host the Memphis Grizzlies
• Monday, January 9: Kings host the Washington Capitals
• Tuesday, January 10: Lakers host the Phoenix Suns
• Wednesday, January 11: Clippers host the Miami Heat
• Thursday, January 12: Kings host the Dallas Stars
• Friday, January 13: Lakers host the Cleveland Cavaliers
• Saturday, January 14: Clippers host the Lakers

That’s quite a run of games at Staples Center for more than two weeks. And don’t worry, even though there isn’t a game on Sunday, January 15, the Lakers and Clippers each make up for it with home games on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, Janaury 16. January is a busy sports month at Staples Center

Tuesday’s 7:30 p.m. PST game will be televised by Fox Sports West. For more Lakers basketball news and information, be sure to read Silver Screen and Roll.

Leave your comments on the news below.

While everyone talks about Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin has gone into the shadows but even though it is preseason, he called attention to himself as the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Los Angeles Lakers for the second consecutive game.

Blake Griffin is involved in the community. Here he plays with Marines on the Camp Pendleton marine Base.
photo by:Sgt. Vitaliy Rusavskiy Wikimedia Commons

Blake Griffin lit up the outgunned Lakers for 30 points and put on a clinic as the Clippers won 108-103 in the second consecutive matchup between the Staples Center roommates. Griffin’s highlight play of the night was an emphatic slam as he drove the lane unchallenged off a Chris Paul bounce pass.

Griffin and Paul played like they have been together for years on offense but the key to this game was defense and turnovers and this could be a theme for both teams all season. The Lakers turned the ball over 22 times under pressure and they must work on their ball protection moving forward.

Griffin and Chris Paul showed how they will be unstoppable this season with several ESPN highlight moments against a Lakers team without their superstar Kobe Bryant. Bryant sat out the game with a wrist injury that could lead to missed regular season games.

Derek Fisher played in his first game since dealing with months of negotiations to settle the NBA lockout and the rust showed but he did make some impressive plays. When Fisher and Kobe get on the floor together the Lakers will be a different team but the question all season will be a simple one: Can Derek Fisher hold up with the back-to-back games.

Were there any positives arising from the Lakers second consecutive loss in their own arena? One positive was watching Derek Fisher play well at times after a long layoff with limited practice. Aside from Fisher producing in his 24 minutes on the floor, the Lakers and head coach Mike Brown will have a tough time finding many positives in this game.

Metta World Peace (Ron Artest) is looking like a deer in the headlights in his first two games but he never plays well in meaningless games. Once Artest plays ten game in the regular season, Mike Brown and the Lakers coaching staff will know where they stand. Don’t figure in Artest as a strong sixth man off the bench, he can’t handle the pressure.

Christmas Day will provide answers to the Lakers season. Their patchwork lineup, without Chris Paul and Lamar Odom, must prove the critics wrong. If Kobe Bryant misses the first ten games of the season it could be the end of the Lakers hopes for 2012. A ten game stretch without the Lakers top producer in a shortened 66-game season will crush the Lakers.

*Todd Jacobs is a Southern California native and a longtime Los Angeles Lakers fan dating back to the days of Wilt Chamberlain and “The Logo” Jerry West.

Sources:

ESPN Clubhouse: Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers news and notes.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Comment Below!.

The first matchup between Kobe Bryant and his Los Angeles Lakers and Chris Paul and his Los Angeles Clippers ended in a blowout by the Staples Center step children. Let the overreaction begin. The Lakers fans are up in arms that the Clippers blew out their team and now the local Los Angeles radio show hosts will have a week’s worth of material to keep them busy before Christmas.

Chris Paul
Photo by: L.A.’s Finest Wikimedia Commons

This is the best thing that could happen for the Lakers and Kobe Bryant. Let the Clippers fans celebrate their preseason win over the Lakers. The preseason is for getting players acclimated and learning the nuances of new defensive and offensive schemes.

The Clippers came into the game looking to impress their fans and prove they will be a force to be reckoned with in the NBA and the Pacific Division. The Clippers looked good for the first preseason game of the season and they did mesh well but the Lakers have a veteran team and they were looking to give young players. like Darius Morris, experience.

Chris Paul showed that he will provide the Clippers a creative aspect they have lacked in the past. Combining Paul with Chauncey Billups and Blake Griffin could prove a formidable combination but Paul’s biggest help could be an afterthought for most.

Center DeAndre Jordan only scored six points but made his presence known and helped create pressure to bring the ball down the court. Jordan blocked four shots and matched up well against Gasol and Bynum. Jordan will play a huge role in making Chris Paul effective this year but he won’t get much credit.

What about fans coming from the game questioning whether Kobe Bryant has lost a step. They may have missed several of Kobe’s signature off-balance shots that miraculously fell through the net or they may have ignored watching Kobe hustle back on defense every minute he was in the game.

Bryant is competitor and when the season heads down the stretch, he will be there. Bryant says he doesn’t read the stories about the Lakers or himself and this might be true but he will use the attention being lavished on Paul to motivate himself.

Will Chris Paul take over Staples Center this season? Don’t bet on it. Kobe Bryant has ruled the Staples Center since it opened and he will take back his title as top dog in Staples soon enough. Don’t panic Lakers fans. The season begins Christmas Day.

*Todd Jacobs is a native Southern California resident and longtime NBA and Los Angeles Lakers fan.

Sources:

Prime Ticket: Los Angeles Lakers vs Los Angeles Clippers

ESPN Clubhouse: Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers news and stats

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Leave any suggestions in the comment box.

THE LOS ANGELES Lakers will play games on the first three nights of the NBA season, the first of 42 back-to-back-to-back sets teams will face during this lockout-shortened season.

The NBA announced the compacted, 66-game schedule last night, one that will require every team to play on three consecutive nights at least once. And it will force every team to navigate demanding stretches that are never seen during a full season, such as the nine games in 12 nights the Atlanta Hawks face starting with their Dec. 27 opener.

The league’s 66th season begins with five games on Christmas, including the Lakers hosting the Chicago Bulls. Los Angeles then visits Sacramento the next night before returning home to host Utah on Dec. 27.

Teams will play 48 conference games and 18 against the opposing conference, meaning they play only three nonconference opponents home and away. The league did preserve its most storied rivalry, with the Lakers traveling to Boston for a Feb. 9 matchup before the Celtics open a stretch of eight road games in 13 nights in March with games on back-to-back nights at the Staples Center against the Lakers and Clippers.

Dallas and Miami also will meet twice, following their Christmas NBA Finals rematch with a March 12 game in Miami. The Heat and Lakers also play twice.

The 50-game 1999 season featured 64 sets of back-to-back-to-backs and was plagued by sloppy basketball being played on fatigued legs. The NBA faces a similar predicament now after failing to reach a new labor deal in time to save the Nov. 1 start to the season.

Instead, a tentative agreement was reached on Nov. 26. Lawyers for the owners and players are still finalizing the rest of the deal, with both sides expected to vote on it tomorrow before training camps and free agency open on Friday.

Miami will appear on ABC or ESPN 16 times, the most allowable, followed by 15 appearances apiece for the Lakers and Bulls. The Lakers and Celtics each appear a league-high 10 times on TNT.

The regular season is scheduled to conclude April 26 and the playoffs will open 2 nights later. The last possible date of the NBA Finals is June 26.

In other NBA news:

* Bob Vander Weide is retiring as Orlando Magic chief executive officer and team president Alex Martins is being promoted to his position, a source told the Associated Press.

Thanks for reading! .

We don’t yet know the full details of the agreement between the NBA owners and players, but we do know the tentative plan is to start the season on Christmas Day, presumably with the previously scheduled contest at Staples Center between the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls as one of the games, a great showcase between Kobe Bryant and reigning league MVP Derrick Rose.

The NBA on Sunday night released a basic outline of the proposed 66-game schedule, which is understandably a little more compacted than normal. For instance, the original Lakers schedule had 56 games scheduled from Christmas Day through the end of the season on April 18, a span of 116 days. The new schedule is slated to end eight days later, on April 26, 2012, meaning the clubs will have to squeeze 66 games into 124 days.

With the new schedule, teams will play 48 of their 66 games against their own conference, compare to the standard 52 of 82 games. Teams will play six teams within their own conference four times each, and play the other eight teams in their conference three times each. The 18 games against the other conference will be comprised of a pair of games against three teams, and single games against the other 12 teams in the opposite conference.

The Lakers had similar winning percentages last season against the Western Conference (.692) and Eastern Conference (.700), so a schedule more concentrated with games against the west doesn’t figure to affect them much. The Los Angeles Clippers, however, fared better against the east (.433) than they did against the west (.365), so perhaps playing fewer games against the presumably weaker conference would hurt them.

Under normal circumstances, NBA teams don’t play three days in a row, but given the time constraints in the upcoming shortened season, all teams will be subject to at least one back-to-back-to-back stretch, with no more than three such occurrences per team. It will be interesting to see how certain teams react to three games in three nights. A young team like the Clippers, with Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon, and DeAndre Jordan likely to be fresher than an older team like the Boston Celtics.

The playoffs are scheduled to start on April 28, two days after the regular season ends, with the NBA Finals slated to end no later than June 26, 2012. There is the possibility of playoff games on back-to-back nights in the second round.

For more NBA news and notes, be sure to read about the Lakers at Silver Screen and Roll, and the Clippers at Clips Nation.

Gotta run!.

Read More: Kobe Bryant (G – LAL), Kevin Durant (F – OKC), Russell Westbrook (G – OKC), Memphis Grizzlies, New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers

With the cancellation on Friday of all November NBA games due to the ongoing labor strife, league commissioner David Stern has ruled out an 82-game regular season, if in fact there will be a season at all. Let’s assume for a moment that the league and the players union come to an agreement in time to begin play in December. Here is a look at what Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers missed out on.

The Lakers were set to open their regular season schedule on Tuesday, November 1 at Staples Center against Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder. But as it stands now, the Lakers will begin their truncated regular season on Friday, December 2 in Salt Lake City against the Utah Jazz.

Gone for the Lakers are home games against the San Antonio Spurs on November 9 and the New York Knicks on November 17, and a back-to-back pair against 2011 Western Conference semifinalists Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City on November 22 and 23. In all, the Lakers said goodbye to nine home games and five road contests with Friday’s news:

• November 1: vs. Oklahoma City
• November 2: at Golden State
• November 4: at Phoenix
• November 6: vs. New Orleans
• November 7: at Sacramento
• November 9: vs. San Antonio
• November 11: vs. Denver
• November 13: vs. Detroit
• November 15: vs. Washington
• November 17; vs. New York
• November 22: at Memphis
• November 23: at Oklahoma City
• November 25: vs. Sacramento
• November 29: vs. Minnesota

For more Lakers news and information, be sure to read Silver Screen and Roll.

There is the quick update of the day.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP)—The Los Angeles D-Fenders are returning to the
NBA’s Development League for the upcoming season after a one-year hiatus.

The D-Fenders, owned and operated by the Los Angeles Lakers, will move their
home games from Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles to Toyota Sports Center
in El Segundo, where the Lakers practice.

Comment Below!.