Merry Christmas: Lakers vs. Cavs

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Next season’s NBA schedule won’t be out for a while, but basketball fans can now dream about finding this in their holiday television stocking:

Kobe Bryant and the Lakers versus Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

And there are a couple of very good reasons to expect such a matchup:

1) The Lakers have played a marquee Christmas Day game every year since the shortened 1998 season.

2) TV executives love those Kobe vs. Shaq grudge matches, real or imagined. After Shaq was traded to Miami, the Lakers and the Heat played three consecutive Christmas Days, 2004 to 2006.

Hey, in the spirit of what the NHL has done with outdoor games the last couple of years, how about the Lakers and Cavs playing over a portable court at the Rose Bowl -- the first part of a holiday tripleheader: NBA game on Christmas, Rose Bowl football game Jan. 1 and the BCS title game Jan. 7?

Or maybe just stick to that original idea?

-- Mike Hiserman