Although most sports are quiet on Christmas Day, the NBA is the one major league that takes center stage. The NBA will have the spotlight with five games spanning the day. The highlight matchup will be the Los Angeles Lakers-Golden State Warriors showdown, which will pit LeBron James against the league’s two-time defending champions. The oddsmakers at BetDSI have their eyes on two of the biggest stars in the game, James and Stephen Curry, pitting them head-to-head in a points prop:
LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry Props: Total Points on Christmas
LeBron James -2.5
Stephen Curry +2.5
James is currently third all-time in terms of Christmas Day scoring as he has collected 321 points. He’ll be trying to track down Oscar Robertson (377) and Kobe Bryant (395), who are second and first on the all-time list. By the time his career is all said and done, he’ll likely have the record.
Related: NBA Western Conference Betting
Heading into last season’s Christmas game, James was averaging 26.8 points per contest on December 25th. However, a matchup with the Golden State Warriors last season saw him fall short of that mark as he only collected 20. Of course, he’ll be the main focal point of the Warriors defense once again. Draymond Green and Klay Thompson will be stuck to him like glue, for the most part.
On the season, James is averaging 27.6 points per game, which puts him fourth in the league right now. He’s cooled off a bit of late, though, averaging 23.3 points over his last four. Just like the rest of the team, road games have been more challenge for James as he is shooting about two percent worse from the field and one percent worse from three.
As for his opponent in this prop, Curry, he’s averaging 29.2 points per game this season, but remember he has only played 23 games so far. He missed 11 games due to injury. Since his return, though, he’s been on fire. Curry is averaging 28.9 points per game in the month of December, including 30.2 over his last five contests. He has hit or surpassed the 30-point mark in six of his last 10 contests.
Curry doesn’t usually shine on Christmas Day – or at least he hasn’t as of yet. Taking a look at his history, he hasn’t crossed the 20-point mark recently. Curry missed last year’s Christmas Day matchup with James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The year before, he scored just 15 points while going 4-of-11 from the field. During the 2015-16 season, he managed just 19 points in the showdown with the Cavs. In 2014-15 and 2013-14, he scored just 14 and 15, respectively, in games against the Los Angeles Clippers. We’ll see if he’ll be able to manage something better this year but the oddsmakers are expecting James to outscore him.
