The Los Angeles Lakers take the NBA's best Western Conference record into Atlanta on Monday night, visiting the Hawks at 7 p.m. fresh off a 43-point eruption from Austin Reaves. The Lakers sit at 9-2, first in the West, while Atlanta is 7-4 and fourth in the East — a legitimate early-season measuring stick for both sides.

The college slate carries its own storylines. Georgia (2-0) hosts Florida Gulf Coast (1-1) in Athens on Monday at 7 p.m. after Blue Cain scored 20 points in a 91-77 win. An hour later, Missouri (1-1) welcomes SIU-Edwardsville (2-1), with the Cougars riding a 20-point outing from Gianni Cobb.

Tuesday, Yale (1-1) visits Baylor (2-0) in Waco at 8 p.m. The Bulldogs arrive off a 87-75 loss to UCF in which Riley Fox scored 24 — a strong individual line in a defeat, and the kind of performance Yale will need again against a power-conference host.

Across all four games, the pattern favors the home teams on paper, but each visitor brings a scorer in form.