Research: Lakers play the fewest back-to-back games of any NBA team

Back-to-back games have always been contentious for teams and fans alike. Teams worry about player injuries, while fans are disappointed when their favorites sit out. Over the past decade, load management has emerged as a strategy to address back-to-backs.

But who gets the short and long end of the stick when it comes to the NBA scheduling those games?

We looked up all regular season games since 2004-05 (when the league expanded to 30 teams) to find out. The main takeaway: The Lakers score a major win with the fewest back-to-backs in the league in the last 20 years at just 336. (For context, the Clippers had 382, which amounts to 2.3 more per season on average.)

Here’s the overall ranking: