Looking ahead: Heat at Lakers

Chris Bosh drives through the Sacramento Kings porous defense Friday night en route to a 122-103 win. Bosh and the Heat will face Lakers, who are without Kobe Bryant, on Christmas Day.

By Ben Bolch

Dec. 21, 2013 12 AM PT

MIAMI AT LAKERS, 2 p.m. Wednesday. TV: Channel 7.

It was supposed to be LeBron James versus Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade versus Steve Nash. Now it’s going to be the Heat versus “X,” leading to some potential issues in the ABC promotions department. Injuries to Bryant, Nash, Jordan Farmar and Steve Blake have left the Lakers with a largely anonymous cast of leftovers featuring emergency point guard Xavier Henry. One story line hasn’t disappeared: the tight-fitting, sleeved jerseys both teams will be wearing for the Christmas afternoon game. Comfort could be the Heat’s biggest challenge.

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Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

Looking ahead: Heat at Lakers

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