LeBron's Lakers come to The Town for a Christmas Day Matinee

The NBA’s most polarizing Christmas tradition returns tomorrow when LeBron and the new-look Lakers travel to Oakland to take on the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors.

This game features three of the top-5 scorers in the NBA and three bonafide MVP candidates in Stephen Curry (29.2), Kevin Durant (29.0), and LeBron James (27.4), and is the first matchup of the season in what many hope will be the next great rivalry in the Association.

The Warriors (23-11) are one of the hottest teams in the NBA, having gone 8-3 in their last 11 games since Stephen Curry returned from a groin injury, and hold a 15-3 record at Oracle Arena. 

The Lakers (19-14), led by the 33-year-old future Hall of Famer, who is embroiled in controversy after a questionable Instagram post, have lost four of the last six, but have been the third-best shooting team in the league, posting a 47.8 percent clip, behind only the Raptors and the Warriors. 

LeBron, a Christmas veteran with 12 games under his belt, is only 74 points behind Kobe Bryant for the most all-time on the 25th and has lost two of the last three against the Warriors. 

But that was with the Cavs, and he has a whole new cast of young guns in tow this year.

But Draymond Green, who tallied a triple-double in a 99-92 Warriors’ win last year, said he doesn’t expect the challenge from LeBron in purple and gold to be any different.

"I really don't give a damn about him being in a Laker uniform," Green said. "That really don't matter to me. That is the team he is on and that is who we face. It obviously is going to be a tough challenge, they are playing well.”

Curry, who missed last season’s holiday matinee, said he’s anticipating an exciting atmosphere in what is billed as one of the biggest regular-season games in recent history.

"We've seen him a lot over the last four years,” Curry said. “It'll be a fun atmosphere, a fun game [with a] Bay Area and Southern California vibe kind of reignited a little bit so it should be fun."

Curry is coming off of his third 40-point game this season, a 42-point outing stamped with a game-winning layup with 0.6 seconds left against the Clippers.

But he will be up against one of the biggest deterrents in his career – Christmas day. Curry averages 11.8 points on 29.3 percent shooting, including 19.4 percent from the field, over six Christmas games. He has never once gone over 20 points, with his best performances coming in 2012 and 2015, scoring 15 points and 11 assists in a 105-103 win over the Clippers in the former and posting a 19-point, seven-assist line in an 89-83 win in the latter. 

But he luckily has one of the best Christmas performers flanking him.

Just like he has in the Finals, Durant has upped his game on Christmas, averaging 31.3 points per game – the highest among current players – on 53 percent shooting. 

Fans hoping to get a last-minute ticket to see the big matchup might find tough sledding: secondary-market tickets start at $171 a pop, often only sold in singles, and top out at over $25,000, in what is undoubtedly the most expensive game in the NBA this season.