Lakers to host 76ers, LeBron James on Christmas Day

The Lakers will be featured front and center on the Christmas Day schedule against a new opponent, but a familiar face.

LeBron James’ return to Los Angeles will highlight the special day of games as Los Angeles will host the 76ers in the middle of the five-game slate. The league announced the games for Christmas and the opening week on Tuesday morning.

This will be the 28th consecutive season the purple and gold feature on the Christmas schedule. However, it will be just the second time they have faced the Sixers on Christmas. However, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

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There will be few games more notable or marquee for the Lakers this season than LeBron’s return to LA. While there were other games based on competition or rivalries that the league could have slotted the Lakers into, no game will have more narratives or storylines around it.

Aside from the LeBron aspect of this, it’ll also be a meeting between, presumably, two of the best teams in the league. The Lakers will be led by Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves still while the Sixers were arguably the biggest winners of the offseason by stealing Jaylen Brown from the Celtics.

Outside of that contest, an NBA Finals rematch will start the day as the Knicks host the Spurs. The Celtics will host the Heat in the precursor to the Lakers-Sixers. The Thunder will face the Wolves with LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards before the nightcap of the Warriors and Nuggets.

Left off Opening Night slate

For the first time since the beginning of the LeBron James era, the Lakers will not play on Opening Night. Between the Knicks getting their rings and a rematch of the Thunder and Spurs, the purple and gold were left off the slate on the league’s first night of games.

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Instead, LA will open against the Warriors at home a day later.

In recent years, the league pulled the Lakers-Warriors card whenever they needed a ratings bump. But the LeBron-Steph Curry rivalry isn’t there anymore, so we’ll see how much weight a Luka-led showdown carries.

Fans won’t have to wait long, though, to see the new-look Lakers in official action in what will be the exciting first step…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/lakers-host-76ers-lebron-james-150037232.html

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Publish date : 2026-08-11 15:00:00

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