LeBron James always enjoys his Christmas Day outings and this year it shouldn’t be any different with the Los Angeles Lakers (13-19) facing the Dallas Mavericks (17-15).
Bookmaker Bovada has the odds at +120 for LeBron to post his eighth Christmas Day double-double on Sunday.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: December 24th, 10:30 A.M. (EST)
The veteran superstar will play on Christmas Day for the 16th consecutive year, looking to add to 422 points. Last season, LeBron became the NBA’s leading scorer on Christmas Day and the 422 points also mark the most a player has had on a single date in NBA history.
Records are set to fall again on Sunday as James will have his 17th Christmas Day outing, breaking a tie with Kobe Bryant. Meanwhile, a positive result would help James to also break a tie with Dwyane Wade for the most wins on Christmas Day (10).
Throughout his career, James has averaged 27.4 points per game on Christmas Day. He’s had five 30-point efforts on the day and the Lakers will definitely need another one from him against the Mavericks with the team having recently lost Anthony Davis to a foot injury.
With Davis in top form, the Lakers started the month in dominating fashion, but their season has begun to fall apart again since his injury and every victory counts for the team.
Dallas hasn’t been fully convincing either this season, but Luka Doncic’s squad is still nicely tucked into a top-eight seed in the Western Conference and the team has gained a bit of momentum ahead of Christmas Day with back-to-back wins.
The last victory came on Friday against Houston in a very special outing for Doncic. He was just two rebounds short of posting a 50-point triple-double. The Slovenian superstar has been in incredible form throughout the season and will also look to bring something special to the table in his first career Christmas Day outing.
Doncic is averaging 32.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 8.7 assists for the season, and should he manage to record a triple-double on Sunday, he would be only the eighth player in league history to achieve it on Christmas Day. LeBron is also on the exclusive list, among Kemba Walker, Russell Westbrook, Draymond Green, Billy Cunningham, John Havlicek and Oscar Robertson.
The Mavericks have won the last two head-to-head meetings between the teams and are 4-1 in the last five. During the start of the Doncic era in Dallas, the Lakers dominated the match-up, but the Mavericks have now won the regular-season series in two consecutive seasons.
