Lakers get advantage over Suns and rest of West before season even begins

The Phoenix Suns now know the road they need to take to reach the promised land in 2024-25, and it will begin with four of their first five games against teams from Los Angeles. A pair of tilts against the Los Angeles Lakers and L.A. Clippers to begin the campaign, with both Clippers meetings coming on the road.

Sandwiched in between that is a game against the Dallas Mavericks, who made the NBA Finals last time out and are going to be right in the mix in the Western Conference again this coming season. As for the opponents the Suns have seen the least since 1968? There will be games against them too, which is just as well as they've generally beat up on these expansion franchises.

A new quirk has emerged from the scheduling, and it once again shows that the rich get richer in the form of the Lakers.

Thanks to the good folks over at HoopsHype - who went and did a little digging on this - we now know that the Lakers have faced the fewest back-to-backs going back to 2004-05. The last time the league expanded to bring it to the 30 teams as we know the league today. The amount? What seems like a sizeable 336, until you consider the Atlanta Hawks lead the way at 393.

It gets even worse as the Clippers - who they shared a building with up until this season when the Suns will make a little bit of history around that - have had to endure 382 back-to-backs in that same time frame. That doesn't exactly seem fair now does it?

You're probably wondering where the Suns figure in all of this, and it is middle of the road stuff for them. Unlike the Lakers and Clippers who have to get out of town around Oscars season - and the San Antonio Spurs on their yearly rodeo trip - there's no reason the Suns are forced to leave The Valley for an extended period of time. The sit 24th, at 354 back-to-backs.

Nice as that sounds, there is yet another sting in the tail ahead of 2024-25. The league average for back-to-backs heading into the new campaign is 14.9. Yet the Lakers can once again be found underneath that number, as they'll have to endure 13 of these two games in two nights scenarios.

As for the Suns? They're one of 11 teams who will have to endure 16 back-to-backs - and although that might not seem like much - margins have never been smaller in the Western Conference. This might not count as a massive advantage to the Lakers, but there's no doubt that the second game is generally a slog for the team that's played the night before. Especially on the road.

The league might have introduced new rules that allow players over 35-years-old to sit and rest on certain occasions, but Bradley Beal isn't one of them. The 31-year-old limited to only 53 regular season games in his first year in The Valley, and who will be expected to be out there when healthy. Just another reason to love those Los Angeles Lakers.