The Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers are playing the middle game on Christmas Day and while the matchup lacks some star power without Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash, reigning MVP LeBron James will be the main attraction and the game starts up at 5:00 pm and will be streaming online and on TV from ESPN and ABC and comes after the Knicks and Thunder game.
The Miami Heat have been playing some great basketball and now they are just over a game behind the Indiana Pacers and they are looking for a sixth straight win and without Kobe Bryant in the lineup, the Lakers will be relying on Pau Gasol more than ever. The Lakers have been off to a much better start last season than last year and James comes in playing very hot, scoring nearly 40 points against the Hawks in an overtime win and he has been averaging nearly 30 points in his last 13 games against the Lakers and that makes it an even tougher matchup with the Heat. Miami is ranked in the top 10 in scoring this year and they are averaging 114 over their last five games and the team is now closing on top of the eastern conference again.
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The Lakers will focus on LeBron James during the game and the team is 9-0 this season when James scores 27 or more and he likely will do that today with a Bryant-less Lakers team. The Heat are playing very well on offense and they have lost only two of 18 games when they score over 100 and this could end up being a blowout if they get off to a good start. The Lakers are two games under .500 this season and Miami is playing some very good ball and the games on Christmas are usually matchups of the best teams and in this case it's the most popular ones, as the Knicks are losing bad to the Thunder, while the Chicago Bulls blew out the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center in the 12 pm noon game.
The later games on the Christmas Day schedule has the Houston Rockets visiting the San Antonio Spurs and they have been one of the best teams in the west at home this season and in the latest game at 10:30 pm, the Los Angeles Clippers will be facing off against the Golden State Warriors and that could be one of the highest scoring games on the schedule for Christmas. LeBron James and the Heat should end up getting a victory against the Lakers without Kobe Bryant and the Texas matchup between the Rockets and the Spurs has two teams looking for position in the division in the west. The Thunder got a great game out of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and the matchup of the Warriors and the Clippers has top scorers in Stephen Curry and Chris Paul.