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The marquee day of the NBA’s regular season each year is Christmas Day because those are usually the only live professional sports events going in the United States on the holiday (there is an NFL game Friday). Thus, the games draw huge television ratings and give the NBA the national spotlight; to make their TV partners happy, the NBA rushed the start of the 2020-21 regular season so that Christmas games would happen.

Only the league’s marquee teams and biggest stars play on the holiday, which means of course LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers will play Friday as the defending NBA champions host early MVP betting favorite Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks at 8 p.m. ET.

The Mavs will be without their second-best player, Kristaps Porzingis, as he recovers from offseason surgery. The Lakers lost their opener at home to the Clippers on Tuesday and LeBron tweaked his ankle, but he says he will be fine for this one. Dallas lost in Phoenix. Los Angeles is a 6-point favorite and 5-1 ATS in the past six meetings.