LeBron James Los Angeles Lakers
LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers walks on the court during a stop in play in a preseason game against the Golden State Warriors at T-Mobile Arena on October 10, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The Los Angeles Lakers, along with the Portland Trail Blazers, will be the last team to make their debut in the 2018-2019 NBA season when the two teams meet Thursday night. It’s the start of a tough early-season schedule for L.A. in their first year of the LeBron James era.

The Lakers are underdogs on the road in the season opener, playing against a team that earned the No.3 seed in last year’s Western Conference. LeBron James will make his regular-season debut for the Lakers at Staples Center two nights later, but things get even more difficult when the team hosts the Houston Rockets. Houston led the NBA in wins last season and took the Golden State Warriors to seven games in the conference finals.

Los Angeles might be favored for the first time Monday night when they host the San Antonio Spurs. San Antonio traded Kawhi Leonard for DeMar DeRozan in the offseason.

Through their first seven games, the Lakers will face only one opponent that didn’t win at least 46 games in the 2017-2018 season. Sandwiched in between home games against the Spurs and Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles will visit the Phoenix Suns, who had the NBA’s worst record a year ago. The Suns drafted Deandre Ayton with the first overall pick and leading-scorer Devin Booker is back after missing 28 games last year.

After road games against San Antonio and the Minnesota Timberwolves, L.A. plays at home against a team coming off a losing season for the first time. The Lakers will host the Dallas Mavericks on Halloween in their eighth game of the season.

This is what James signed up for when he left the Eastern Conference. Over the first seven games of last season, James and the Cleveland Cavaliers faced four teams that would go on to win fewer than 30 games.

L.A. doesn’t play an Eastern Conference opponent until Nov. 4 when they host the Toronto Raptors. Nine of the Lakers’ first 11 games will be against teams that finished at least 10 games above .500 last year.

The Lakers have to wait until Nov. 10 and Nov. 11 when they play the Sacramento Kings and the Atlanta Hawks for their first string of games in which they take on two losing teams in a row. Los Angeles won’t face three teams that finished under .500 consecutively until they hit December.

James returns to Cleveland for the first time on Nov. 21. The Lakers don’t play the Warriors until Christmas Day.

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