How To Watch Lakers-Celtics Christmas Day Matchup

The weather outside isn't so frightful, since the game will be played Crpyto.com Arena.

Your Los Angeles Lakers have earned a prestigious Christmas Day game once again. Beyond opening night, this very well may be the biggest annual moment of the NBA's regular season (for now, but the In-Season Tournament could take over that distinction pretty quickly if it remains as fun as it was this year). And LA, the league's glamor franchise, has had a seat at the head of the table literally for decades in these contests.

LA will be playing host to its least-favorite opposition, at least historically, as the Boston Celtics are coming to town. These two star-studded squads are finding each other at vastly different points of their respective seasons.

The Lakers are 16-14, and only after demoting ex-starting point guard D'Angelo Russell to a bench role has the team managed to recover from a miserable recent stretch where it had gone 1-5 following its In-Season Tournament victory. LA still has plenty of rotational questions to sort out, not least of which is who should start alongside future Hall of Famers LeBron James and Anthony Davis. It's just pretty clear that Russell has lost that privilege.

Boston, on the other hand, shares the NBA's current best record, 22-6, with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the West's top-seeded team. Although All-NBA power forward Jayson Tatum is playing through a bum ankle, he still seems to be performing at an incredibly high level. The club has solidified its top six this season, adding two-time All-Star guard and All-Defensive mainstay Jrue Holiday alongside former All-Star center Kristaps Porzingis at center along its incumbent core of Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and an aging Al Horford. 

The Celtics are big, deep, and talented, and look like the class of the East. They have the slight edge in Vegas on the road, and are currently -3 favorites heading into the contest, per The Action Network.

The game is set to be televised on ESPN and ABC, with a radio broadcast slated for ESPN Radio.