Christmas Day NBA schedule: How to watch Lakers vs. Mavericks on Christmas

Christmas Day may feel a little odd for the Lakers this season. While it’s been a virtual given that they would take part in the league’s annual holiday festivities, they almost always have hosted the game.

This season, though, the Lakers travel to Dallas to face a generational star in Luka Doncic. It’ll be just the third time in the last 16 Christmas Day games the contest won’t take place in Los Angeles.

Doncic and the Mavericks will present a big challenge to the Lakers just by his ability to step up on the biggest stages. And Christmas Day against LeBron James is as big of a stage as they come.

It also helps that Doncic is playing at an elite level this season. He’s averaging an absurd 32.2 points per game on 49.4% shooting overall while chipping in 8.7 assists and 8.3 rebounds. Our friends at DraftKings say Doncic has the third-best odds at MVP this year, sitting at +450.

Largely because of that and Anthony Davis’ injury, the Mavericks will also head into the game as betting favorites at with the Lakers as 7.5-point underdogs. Based on records, the two sides aren’t that far apart. Dallas is floating around .500 and in the play-in race while the Lakers are battling to get back to that mark and into the play-in race themselves.

LeBron James, meanwhile, has been chasing down Kareem Abdul-Jabbar this season for the all-time scoring title. He’s under 700 points away from first all-time and is set to break the record, based on his current pace, will break the record in the next two months.

It’ll be an early tip-off for the Lakers on Christmas Day. After opening your presents, you can tune into the game with the start time set for 11:30 a.m. PT on ESPN.

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