NBA SEASON 2009/10
Dates: 27 October - 14 April **Coverage: **Daily video highlights and top 10 plays each week on the BBC Sport website (UK users only)
**The Los Angeles Lakers are favourites to defend their title as the 2009/10 NBA season gets under way on Thursday.**The teams most likely to meet them in next April’s finals, Cleveland and Boston, go head to head in the first of 1,230 league games this season.
Controversial forward Ron Artest joins Kobe Bryant in the Lakers line-up for their Western Conference campaign.
Former Laker Shaquille O’Neal will team up with LeBron James at Cleveland, with Boston their main rivals in the East.
O’Neal, who joined from Phoenix Suns in June, is relishing his link-up with James, saying: “My mission is to win a ring for the ‘King’.”
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“The Celtics have a starting five that can go against anyone, but the NBA is like a marathon”
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Chicago, who beat Utah in a pre-season clash at London’s O2 Arena earlier this month, will be boosted by the return to fitness of British-raised forward Luol Deng, who suffered a leg injury towards the end of last season.
But they will be without London-born guard Ben Gordon, who signed a free-agent contract with Detroit worth around £34.2m over five years.
Orlando, surprise finalists last season, have brought in veteran playmaker Vince Carter as one of five new players to join Dwight Howard at the Magic.
Former Detroit power forward Rasheed Wallace will join a fit-again Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce at the Boston Celtics.
But the Lakers have also made a bid to improve, trading with the Houston Rockets to bring in Artest, who was suspended for 73 games for his part in a crowd brawl in 2004.
“I’m coming to a team that already has a great nucleus of guys,” Artest said. “I want to be a part of the team.”
Bryant, who averaged 28.6 points a game last season, is also joined by forward Pau Gasol, who helped Spain add the European Championship to their world title in September.