PHILADELPHIA — As part of nine changes to the NBA schedule, the league announced Tuesday morning that the Lakers’ home game against the San Antonio Spurs, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 11 but was postponed because of the wildfires in Southern California, has been rescheduled for March 17 at Crypto.com Arena.
To accommodate the rescheduled games around the league, the Lakers’ home game against the Milwaukee Bucks on March 18 was pushed back to March 20.
The Lakers had two home games postponed because of the wildfires – the aforementioned game against the Spurs and a matchup against the Charlotte Hornets on Jan. 9 that the league previously announced has been rescheduled for Feb. 19, making it the Lakers’ first game after the All-Star break.
The schedule changes will lead to the Lakers playing six games in eight days from March 13-20 – including three sets of back-to-back games:
• March 13: at Milwaukee
• March 14: at Denver
• March 15: Off
• March 16: vs. Phoenix
• March 17: vs. San Antonio
• March 18: Off
• March 19: vs. Denver
• March 20: vs. Milwaukee
RISING STAR
Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht was one of 10 rookies selected to compete in Rising Stars, which will take place on Feb. 14 at Chase Center in San Francisco during All-Star Weekend.
Knecht, who the Lakers selected with the No. 17 pick in last June’s draft, entered Tuesday’s road game against the Philadelphia 76ers with averages of 9.1 points and 3.1 rebounds in 20.9 minutes in 44 games (12 starts).
Rising Stars will feature a mini-tournament with four teams and three games. The player pool consists of 10 NBA rookies, 11 NBA sophomores and seven G League players. The 21 NBA players will be drafted onto three seven-player teams, with the draft taking place on Feb. 4, while the seven G League players will be on their own team.
As part of the tournament, Team A will face Team B in the first semifinal (Game 1), and Team C will play Team D in the second semifinal (Game 2). The winner of Game 1 will play the winner of Game 2 in the championship (Game 3). The winner of the semifinal games will be the first team to reach or surpass 40 points while the championship game will be played to 25 points.
The Rising Stars champion will earn a spot to play in the 2025 NBA All-Star Game tournament on Feb. 16