REPORT: Lakers To Face Off With Mavericks On Christmas Day

According to NBA insider Marc Stein, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers are expected to play Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks on Christmas Day.

The 2022-23 NBA season is right around the corner and within the next few weeks, the league will be releasing the full schedule for the new year.

Games on Christmas Day are always a pinnacle of the NBA season, as the league has showcased some of the league’s best talents and teams on this day every year.

This upcoming season, All-Stars such as LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook and Luka Doncic could all be on the floor in the same game, as NBA insider Marc Stein reported on Friday night that the first draft of the 2022-23 NBA season has the Los Angeles Lakers visiting the Dallas Mavericks on Christmas Day.

The first draft of next season's NBA schedule has Lakers at Dallas/LeBron at Luka on Christmas Day, league sources tell me.

Changes are still possible before the full schedule officially drops next week but Christmas games usually hold.

More NBA from me: https://t.co/LGN9cVpeGP

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) August 13, 2022

While changes can always be made to the schedule, especially since everything is still unofficial, the league usually does not change their initial schedule for December 25, as Stein noted in his report.

The Los Angeles Lakers are coming off of a rough 2021-22 season in which they went 33-49 and ended up missing the playoffs. Anthony Davis only played in 40 total games due to numerous injuries and LeBron James ended up only playing in 56 total games.

Still having All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook on their roster, it seems like Los Angeles is looking to “run things back” with their “Big 3” and see what the team can accomplish under newly appointed head coach Darvin Ham, especially since Westbrook is in the final year of his contract.

The Dallas Mavericks finished this past season 52-30 and they not only won their first playoff series since 2011, but they advanced all the way to the Western Conference Finals, where they fell in five games to the Golden State Warriors.

Luka Doncic has cemented himself as a Top-5 player in the NBA though just four seasons and with the additions of Christian Wood and JaVale McGee in the frontcourt this offseason, Dallas is hopeful that they will be able to contend for a title once again this upcoming year.

The Mavericks beat the Lakers two out of three times during the 2021-22 season, winning once at home and once on the road in Los Angeles. Both of these wins for Dallas came in the month of March and Anthony Davis missed both games for the Lakers.

Should the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers play on Christmas Day during the 2022-23 season, this will mark the 23rd consecutive season in which the Lakers have played on Christmas Day. Dallas did not play on Christmas last season and the last time they did have a game scheduled on December 25 was when they took on the Lakers in 2020, losing 138-115 in Los Angeles.

The full release of the 2022-23 NBA schedule should be released ahead of training camps, which are likely to begin the final week of September across the league.