NEW YORK - The Los Angeles Lakers will play games on the first three nights of the NBA season, the first of 42 back-to-back-to-back sets teams will face during this lockout-shortened season.

The NBA announced the compacted, 66-game schedule on Tuesday night, one that will require every team to play on three consecutive nights at least once. And it will force every side to navigate demanding stretches that are never seen during a full season, such as the nine games in 12 nights the Atlanta Hawks face starting with their Dec 27 opener.

The league's 66th season begins with five games on Christmas, including the Lakers playing host to the Chicago Bulls. Los Angeles then visits Sacramento the next night before returning home to host Utah on Dec 27.

Teams will play 48 conference games and 18 against the opposing conference, meaning they play only three nonconference opponents home and away. The league did preserve its most storied rivalry, with the Lakers traveling to Boston for a Feb. 9 matchup before the Celtics open a stretch of eight road games in 13 nights in March with games on back-to-back nights at Staples Center.

Dallas and Miami also will play twice, following their Christmas NBA Finals rematch with a March 12 game in Miami. The Heat and Lakers also play two games.

The 50-game 1999 season featured 64 sets of back-to-back-to-backs and was plagued by sloppy basketball being played on fatigued legs. The NBA faces a similar predicament now after failing to reach a new labor deal in time to save the Nov 1 start to the season.

Instead, a tentative agreement was reached on Nov 26. Lawyers for the owners and players are still finalizing the rest of the deal, with both sides expected to vote on it on Thursday before training camps and free agency open on Friday.

Aging teams such as the Celtics, Lakers and NBA champion Mavericks will have to pace themselves, while younger teams such as Oklahoma City figure to be better prepared for the grind.

"You're not going to have those breaks of three or four days that you sometimes got in the old 82-game schedule, when it was the normal regular schedule," former NBA coach and current analyst Mike Fratello said during the schedule announcement. "Now with everything being compacted, games come that much more quickly, you've got to gear back up again, you move onto the next one immediately."

The Denver Nuggets, hit hard by free agency with three of their players in China, face another difficult obstacle in the schedule. They play five games in six nights spanning the new year, including a home-and-home set with the Lakers on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Associated Press