LeBron James and Kevin Durant will face off on Christmas Day for the fifth time (8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC) in another chapter of the story of two of the NBA’s greatest players.

James and Durant have played one another 43 times across the regular season and playoffs, including three NBA Finals. Before matching up on Oct. 26, 2023, they had gone almost five years without playing against one another in a game, the last time being Christmas Day 2018.

Thursday’s meeting is a clash between two Western Conference teams with high aspirations. The Houston Rockets and Durant are 17-10, and the Los Angeles Lakers and James are 19-9. However, both teams enter the game coming off consecutive losses in a recent stretch to forget: The Lakers are 5-5 and the Rockets are 4-6 in their past 10 respective games.

James is averaging 20.4 points, 7 assists and 5.3 rebounds in his NBA-record 23rd season. Durant is putting up 25.2 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in his 18th campaign.

Here are more notable numbers behind the matchups between James and Durant.

19: In 29 regular-season meetings, James leads the head-to-head record at 19-10, the best mark by any player against Durant (minimum of 25 games).

However, Durant leads the all-time playoff series record at 9-5 across three NBA Finals. Durant beat James in 2017 and 2018 with the Golden State Warriors, but James won in 2012 with the Miami Heat.

73,630: It’s no secret that James and Durant are two of the NBA’s top scorers ever.

As of Christmas Day 2025, James is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and the first player with 40,000 regular-season points. Durant is the eighth-leading scorer and could pass Kobe Bryant for fourth. He is currently less than 3,000 points away.

Heading into Thursday, James and Durant have combined for 73,630 points, the most entering a matchup in NBA history. That surpasses the combined total of 67,331 between Michael Jordan and Karl Malone going into their final contest on Feb. 14, 2003.

28.6: Durant has had his fair share of high-scoring outputs against James.

In 29 regular-season games, Durant has averaged 28.6 points, the most by any player to face James multiple times. The Rockets forward has outscored James 24 times across 43 regular-season and playoff meetings.

However, the highest-scoring game belongs to James: a 51-point performance in Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals.

Durant’s career points average of 27.1 is sixth all time behind qualified players, ahead of James at No. 8 with a 26.9 average.

1,297: The Lakers forward holds not only the NBA’s career scoring record, but also the mark for the most consecutive games with at least 10 points at 1,297. Durant has the fifth-longest such streak at 562 games from 2009 to 2017.

James’ streak was snapped on Dec. 5 against theToronto Raptors, marking the first time he failed to score 10 points in a regular-season game since Jan. 5, 2007, against the Milwaukee Bucks. At the time, Durant was a freshman with theTexas Longhorns. James’ streak began on Jan. 6, 2007, the same day Durant scored 37 against the Colorado Buffaloes, his first 30-point game.

ESPN Research contributed to this report.

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