LeBron James is about to add another chapter to his Christmas Day résumé, and this one comes with a new uniform, a new setting, and plenty of league spotlight.
The Philadelphia 76ers are set for a major holiday showcase this season after adding LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, and the NBA wasted no time making sure the new-look team lands on its biggest stages. On Tuesday, the league began rolling out marquee dates, including Opening Night and Christmas Day, and the Sixers are on both. Their holiday game comes on the road against the Los Angeles Lakers, in one of James’ old stomping grounds.
That matchup gives LeBron a chance to extend what is already a remarkable Christmas legacy. Heading into his first season with the Sixers, he owns the most Christmas Day appearances in NBA history.
He also has the most wins on the holiday, with a 55.0% winning percentage. Another victory in Los Angeles would only deepen that record and give Philadelphia fans another chance to watch history unfold.
The Lakers, meanwhile, enter a season filled with uncertainty after losing LeBron for the first time in eight years. They do have a strong foundation in the Luka Doncic-Austin Reaves pairing, and the brief stretch without James last season offered at least some reason for optimism. During the 2025-2026 NBA season, LeBron missed 22 games, and the Lakers went 14-8 in that span.
That doesn’t mean the Sixers can take the game lightly. Doncic has had mixed results on Christmas, going 2-3 in games he has played on the holiday. But he also delivered one of the most memorable Christmas performances in recent memory in 2023, when he scored 50 points for the Dallas Mavericks and joined a small group of NBA legends to hit that mark on Christmas Day.
For Philadelphia, the trip to Los Angeles is a notable change from the recent holiday routine. The Sixers have usually faced Eastern Conference opponents on Christmas, with matchups against Boston, Miami, New York, and Milwaukee in their past four games on the holiday. This year, they head to LA for Christmas for the first time since 2001.
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Celtics Schedule Just Sparked A Jaylen Brown Debate Fans Will Feel
The NBAs opening-week schedule gave Boston a pair of early spotlight games, with the Celtics set to open against the Detroit Pistons on October 20 before facing the New York Knicks on October 23. But for Philadelphia fans, the more noticeable detail is what is not there: no Celtics-76ers meeting in that opening stretch and no holiday showdown on Christmas Day, either.
That absence has already fed the kind of leaguewide chatter that tends to follow a marquee Eastern Conference pairing, especially with fans and commentators wondering about the scheduling choices around Jaylen Browns move to Philadelphia. Even without a head-to-head date right away, the setup has only sharpened the curiosity around when the Celtics and 76ers will finally see each other and how much the league may be trying to hold that matchup back for a bigger stage. [Read more 🡒]
Tyrese Maxey Faces A New 76ers Reality With LeBron And Brown
Tyrese Maxey already knows the 76ers are heading into a different kind of season after adding LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, and he is not pretending otherwise. The group has far more star power now, which means more attention, more lineup possibilities and a much different feel for a player who has spent recent seasons growing into one of Philadelphias most important offensive engines.
Maxey has acknowledged the adjustment ahead, while Nick Nurse gets the tricky part of making it all work. With more mouths to feed and more responsibilities to sort out, the rotation and the offensive hierarchy figures to look different on any given night, and how quickly those pieces settle in could shape the early months of Philadelphias new-look roster. [Read more 🡒]
Sixers Land Another Big National Spotlight With Lakers Christmas Showcase
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Philadelphia also opens with the Knicks on opening night and gets the Cavaliers in its home opener, giving the early part of the season a distinctly spotlight feel. The NBA is still set to release the Cup group-stage schedule and the full slate later this week, so there will be more details to sort through soon, but the headline dates already show the Sixers are again part of the leagues featured programming. [Read more 🡒]