WATCH Bulls vs. Lakers Online Live Stream: NBA 2016 Conference Rankings, Playoff Updates

Basketball's back for the official 2015-2016 NBA season, so get ready, MstarsNews readers!

The Chicago Bulls battle it out on the court against the Los Angeles Lakers in Week 13 of the regular season on Thursday, January 28 at 10:30 p.m. EST from the Staples Center in California. Read on to see where fans can watch and listen to a live stream of the highly-anticipated Thursday evening basketball game online and catch up-to-date feeds and coverage on highlight plays and scores.

Now heading into mid-season, Chicago maintains a rather impressive top spot in Marc Stein's official NBA power rankings for ESPN.com, while LA stills lags way behind (out of a total 30 teams):

Bulls (6): "Every time you're ready to give up on the Bulls, they wallop another division leader. They're now 7-3 against the six first-place teams (7-1 if you throw out two hammerings by Golden State) in a league where no one else has more than four wins over current division leaders. How happy must Chicago be that it imported Jim Boylen to oversee the defense and keep it at an elite level?"

Record: 25-19 (4th in Eastern Conference).

Lakers (30): "We were wrong. Folks were eager to be more ultra-nostalgic about the 10-year anniversary of Kobe Bryant's 81-point game against Toronto on Jan. 22, 2006, than we ever anticipated. (Mostly) fun week that also included Kobe becoming the fourth player in league history to earn an All-Star start at age 37 (or older), joining Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and John Havlicek."

Record: 9-38 (15th in Eastern Conference).

Tonight's monumental game will be broadcasted live on your local TNT sports channels.

For fans who want to try out a free live stream (which may mean downloading a torrent), click here. Also try this or another option.

Also check out NBA TV for more schedules and game updates.

ESPN, ESPN Scoreboard, and NBA.com are all good sources for up-to-date game coverage and feeds.

More radio listening options for Bulls and Lakers.

Official NHL team websites: Bulls and Lakers.

Enjoy the exciting b-ball game from the West Coast this evening, and always stick with MstarsNews for additional NBA gameday coverage this week. Which conference rival will snag the big win tonight - will Chicago maintain its awesome ranking?