The reigning NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors, will host the Los Angeles Lakers at the Chase Center in their 2022-23 season opener on October 18 after receiving the rings at home, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.

The Warriors finished the 2021-22 regular season with a 53-29 record, ranked third in the Western Conference and they defeated the Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics in the playoffs and Finals to win their seventh title in franchise history.

By contrast, the Lakers were only 33-49 during the regular season and 11th in the West, missing even the play-in tournament. It was the second time LeBron James has missed the postseason since he joined the purple and gold in summer 2018.

The games between Stephen Curry (Warriors) and James (Cleveland Cavaliers) were the biggest highlights of the NBA since the two teams met for the first time in the Finals in 2015. Not only did they compete for the NBA Championship four times in a row between 2015 and 2018, the two sides also played against each other in four Christmas Games.

NBA reporter Marc Stein broke that the Warriors will play against the Grizzlies in the Christmas Game this year. The two teams began to establish rivalries after playing each other either for playoff qualification or in the playoffs themselves in the past two seasons. All-Star point guard Ja Morant of the Grizzlies retweeted the report and posted: "We got what we wanted, Dray," mentioning Draymond Green of the Warriors.

The Lakers, according to Charania, will play against the Mavericks in the Christmas Game. James, the best playmaker of his generation, turns 38 years old on December 30, and will lead his team against Luka Doncic, the best playmaker of the new generation, and the Mavericks.

Having played four seasons in the league, Doncic finally led the Mavericks through the first round of the playoffs last season after they beat the Utah Jazz in six games and then knocked out the West leader Phoenix Suns in seven games. The Warriors defeated the Mavericks 4-1 in the West Finals.