LOS ANGELES: Kobe Bryant will stretch his NBA record for most Christmas games played and the New York Knicks will make a record 48th appearance on the holiday as part of five NBA games set for December 25.

The matchups, available to fans in 47 languages over 215 nations, begin at 1700 GMT with Boston at Brooklyn followed by the Knicks at Los Angeles to face Bryant and the Lakers.

Oklahoma City will visit Miami in a rematch of last season’s NBA Finals followed by the Houston Rockets, featuring Asian-American star Jeremy Lin, at Chicago and the final game will find Denver at the Los Angeles Clippers.

Excluding Americans, there will be 23 players from 16 nations competing on Christmas, including Spain’s Pau Gasol for the Lakers, Britain’s Luol Deng for Chicago and Frenchman Ronny Turiaf of the Clippers.

Canada’s injured Steve Nash is also expected to make a Christmas return for the Lakers.

The Knicks, who lead the Eastern Conference at 19-6, will extend their record Christmas appearance run, a tradition New York helped tip off in 1947. The Knicks own the most Christmas triumphs with 22, two ahead of the Lakers.

It will be the 39th Christmas game for the Lakers and 29th for Boston.

Bryant’s personal mark was set last year, moving him past the 13 Christmas games played by Dolph Schayes, Earl Monroe and Shaquille O’Neal.

Bryant needs 28 points to match the Christmas career scoring mark of 377 points owned by Oscar Robertson.

In all, 217 NBA games have been played on Christmas entering this year’s matchups. The highest-scoring Christmas performance was 60 points by Bernard King for the Knicks over the New Jersey Nets in 1984.