NBA announces Christmas Day schedule

It's an early Christmas present from the NBA.  So start planning your December 25th schedule accordingly.

The defending champion Golden State Warriors will host LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers Christmas Day, league sources confirmed.  It will be James' first holiday game as a Laker.  "The King" signed a 4-year, $153 million contract with LA back in July.

Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid & the Philadelphia 76ers will head to Boston to face off with Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum & the Celtics.  This will be a rematch on this past season's Eastern Conference Finals.  The Celtics won that series in 5 games.

There are also three more games on the docket.

The Utah Jazz will host the Portland Trailblazers.  The Milwaukee Bucks head to New York City to battle the Knicks.  And the in another Western Conference match-up, the Houston Rockets face-off with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

This also marks the first time the Milwaukee Bucks will play on the holiday since 1977.  Whether Knicks All-Star Kristaps Porzingis, recovering from a torn ACL suffered back in February, will play is unclear.

The Lakers-Warriors, Celtics-Sixers and Knicks-Bucks Christmas Day games were first reported by The New York Times.