Nuggets to Face Lakers, Warriors Battle Suns on Opening Night

August 11, 2023

The NBA season will tip off October 24 on TNT, as opening night will feature marquee matchups with the Lakers at Nuggets and Suns at Warriors, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic.

The first matchup will be a rematch of the Western Conference Finals, as LeBron James and company will travel to Denver to take on Nikola Jokic and the reigning champs.

The Lakers will try to avenge their disappointing finish to last year’s season, as the Nuggets swept the Lakers and then went on to beat the Heat in five games to win the NBA championship.

Notably, the Lakers made some noise in free agency this offseason. Being that, the new 2023-24 roster will include additions such as Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Cam Reddish and Jaxson Hayes. Important to mention, this will be the fifth year in a row that the Lakers will play on opening night, and this year’s matchup is coming off a summer of back and forth banter which has intensified the Lakers-Nuggets rivalry.

Since the conference finals last May, these two teams have built up animosity towards each other which all started with coach Michael Malone taking jabs at the Lakers and LeBron. In response, coach Darvin Ham has fired back saying, “This s*** ain’t over” and LeBron tweeted some cryptic messages.

For the next opening night matchup, Kevin Durant will travel back to the Bay Area to play against his old team, who he won championships with in 2017 and 2018. Since his departure in 2019, Durant has played four games against the Warriors, averaging 21.0 points.

To note, this will be the first time Durant faces Golden State since being a member of the Suns. That is to say, on the other side, former Phoenix point guard Chris Paul will face off against his ex-teammates, as the Suns sent him to Golden State via a three-team trade deal that brought Bradley Beal to Phoenix.

The matchup between the two teams brings much anticipation, as Paul, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green will go head-to-head with Durant, Beal, Devin Booker, and Deandre Ayton.