Lakers Absolutely Need to Beat the Clippers on Opening Night to Avoid Negative Spotlight

The 2019-2020 NBA season will start on Tuesday night and the nightcap features a mouth-watering showdown between the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers. City pride is on the line.

The La La Land rivalry will be as potent as ever this campaign with LeBron James and Anthony Davis squaring off against fellow superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

Speaking strictly in terms of tonight's matchup, however, the Lakers need to walk away with a victory so that they side step, at least for the time being, the negative spotlight the media will be BEGGING to unleash on them throughout the year.

For starters, PG-13 will reportedly be shelved until mid-November, as he continues to recover from offseason shoulder surgery. That alone should have the Lake Show favored to start the new campaign 1-0.

Then, there's the fact that skeptics and pundits LOVE to overreact to James' shortcomings throughout his career and you just know that they will be itching to come down on the King, even if its just the first game, if he and The Brow fail to take down a George-less Clippers squad.

We wouldn't consider ourselves one of those cynics, but the Lakers simply need to win tonight to set the tone in what is sure to be a scintillating race for Hollywood power. They have no excuses to go out there and not get the job done.