Ranking the five best NBA Christmas games since 2000: Are LA Lakers the Christmas Day GOATs?

5. Los Angeles Lakers vs. Golden State Warriors – 2024

We don’t have to travel far back for this one, as the Golden State Warriors took on the LA Lakers on Christmas Day last year.

For a game headlined by the superstar duel between Stephen Curry and LeBron James, fan excitement was always going to be at a fever pitch.

However, no one expected Austin Reaves to hit the game-winning shot to get the Lakers a last-second win against a flaming-hot Warriors side that pushed them.

The game was such a spectacle that it led to LeBron James declaring that Christmas Day belonged to the NBA, even if the NFL Christmas ratings told a different story.

4. Los Angeles Lakers vs. Cleveland Cavaliers – 2009

The 2009 Christmas Day slate of games was headlined by an iconic duel between two of the NBA’s biggest names at the time.

Then-defending NBA champions, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers hosted LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Of course, it was made even sweeter because of the presence of Shaquille O’Neal, Bryant’s former LA Lakers teammate-turned bitter rival.

The two mercurial stars kept exchanging blows, as LeBron James scored 26 points to beat Kobe Bryant’s 35-point performance with the Lakers.

3. Boston Celtics vs. Philadelphia 76ers – 2018

Heading into the 2018 NBA Christmas Day fixtures, few fans would have expected the young Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers sides to steal the show.

The LA Lakers vs. Golden State Warriors fixture featured LeBron James facing his rivals on a new team, but it was the young guns of the East that made Christmas Day their own.

Jayson Tatum and Kyrie Irving combined to score 63 points, while Jimmy Butler and Joel Embiid delivered 58 points as a dynamic duo.

In the end, the Boston Celtics would get the win, turning out to be a similar story to their playoff battle just a few months before.

2. LA Lakers vs. Miami Heat – 2004

A third appearance for the LA Lakers on this list, but one that absolutely warrants a place on the list. And that is because of the context heading into the game.

Just months before this fixture, Shaquille O’Neal forced his way to the Miami Heat after his relationship with Kobe Bryant was ruptured beyond repair.

With both players now at odds, the Lakers and the Heat dueled to a classic. Kobe Bryant scored 42 points, but it was Shaquille O’Neal’s 24-point double-double that proved to be decisive.

Shaq got a further measure of revenge, showing Bryant that he traded playing with him in favor of playing with a young superstar like Dwyane Wade, who scored 29 points in the win for the Heat.

1. Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors – 2016

Of course, no other game was going to top the list but this one. In the summer of 2016, the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from 3-1 down to beat the 73-9 Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.

After a brutal loss in what many consider the greatest NBA Finals of all time, the Warriors decided to load up by signing Kevin Durant, one of the best players in the NBA and a former MVP at the time.

And so, on Christmas Day, fans braced themselves for a rematch of the NBA Finals, and it’s safe to say they weren’t disappointed.

Both sides kept trading leads back and forth till the last 10 seconds, when Kyrie Irving made a turnaround jumpshot to give the Cavaliers a marginal one-point lead to get the win.

It gave fans a sense of hope that the Durant-Curry combination could be stopped. Even if that didn’t come true, the Cavaliers made fans believe on the most magical day of the year.