Counting down the Lakers’ top-five greatest Christmas Day moments originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Every year in December, the air gets chilly, Justin Bieber’s mistletoe gets played on repeat, and the NBA plays on Christmas Day.
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The NFL has recently attempted to encroach on the NBA’s Christmas territory, but there is just nothing like the NBA on Christmas.
One mainstay of the NBA’s holiday games is the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers playing on Christmas is like the Cowboys or Lions playing on Thanksgiving; it’s just how it’s meant to be.
Los Angeles currently holds the active record for most consecutive games played on Christmas with 27, and their overall record on Christmas is 25-26. They’ll look to get back to .500 against the Houston Rockets.
For all the times the Lakers have found themselves on the court during the Holiday, what are the top five best moments in their Christmas history?
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5) Elgin Baylor scores 40 in inaugural Christmas game in LA in ’61
For all the young fans that may not know, Los Angeles was not always the home of the Lakers. The team originated in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and moved to Tinseltown prior to the 1960-61 season.
The team’s superstar at the time and 4th on the all-time Lakers scoring list, Elgin Baylor, made sure to set Christmas Day in LA off to the right start.
In a battle between two of the league’s best players, Elgin Baylor and the Bucks‘ Oscar Robertson, Baylor scored 40 points and led the Lakers to a massive 141-127 victory.
4) The Logo: Jerry West puts himself in Christmas Day record books in ’63
The late great Jerry West was not only the logo, but one of the greatest guards in both the Lakers’ and the NBA’s history.
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Just two years after Baylor’s iconic performance against Oscar Robertson and the Bucks, West just had to outdo him.
In a game against the NBA’s other Christmas Day mainstay, the New York Knicks, West scored an astonishing 47 points. Quite a feat for that era. His 47 points against New York still stands to this day as the 4th highest scoring game on Christmas Day.
3) Kobe and Shaq face each other for the first time in ’04
In the summer before the 2004-2005 NBA season, the Lakers were put in a position to have to choose between one of their two stars, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
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It wasn’t as obvious a decision at the time, but they went down the pathway involving Kobe, and the rest was history.
On Christmas Day in 2004, the two former teammates turned rivals faced off against each other for the first time in each other’s careers.
Despite a loss, Kobe proved not only that Los Angeles made the right decision between the two, but also that the narrative of him “needing” O’Neal couldn’t have been more false. Bryant finished the game with a massive 42-point showing despite the loss.
2) Austin Reaves proves that he is ‘Him’ vs the Golden State Warriors in ’24
In the 2023 postseason against Memphis, Austin Reaves proved himself to be ‘Him’ by coming up clutch over and over again. He was good for the Lakers from the jump, but that series jump-started his career.
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Even after that, though, he still had his doubters. When the Lakers traveled to the Chase Center to take on the Golden State Warriors last Christmas, Reaves proved again why he’s that guy.
Reaves didn’t just finish with a 26-10-10 triple-double, but he also hit the game-winner, sending the Warriors home without a gift.
It’s easy to envision him doing that kind of thing now, but if you told anyone he’d have that kind of performance when he was an undrafted rookie, nobody would believe you.
More: JJ Redick saw the All-Star writing on the wall on day one with Austin Reaves.
Lakers fans are all better off for having Reaves in their lives.
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1) Kobe Bryant exercises his Celtics demons on Christmas Day in ’08
In the 2007-08 season, the Lakers’ arch rivals, the Boston Celtics, lifted the Larry O’Brien trophy by defeating the Lakers in six games.
In 2008, Kobe Bryant and the rest of the Lakers organization were ready to get their getback on Christmas Day against Boston.
Boston came into the game on a 19-game winning streak and looked just as dominant as they left off. Kobe had something to say about that.
He finished the game with 27 points, nine rebounds, and five assists, and not only ended Boston’s winning streak, but also set the tone for a season in which they went on to become the NBA Champions later that season.
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A true example of the Mamba Mentality.
The Lakers are synonymous with the NBA on Christmas Day, and Lakers fans are hoping that today, Luka Dončić will etch his name into the Lakers’ Christmas history books.
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