The NBA’s Christmas Day schedule is set, with the five-game slate featuring eight playoff teams plus the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers.
This is according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, who broke news of the lineup on Sunday. It will look like this:
Milwaukee Bucks at Boston Celtics
Philadelphia 76ers at New York Knicks
Phoenix Suns at Denver Nuggets
Los Angeles Lakers at Dallas Mavericks
Memphis Grizzlies at Golden State Warriors
It’s an intrigue-packed slate with the Bucks and Celtics setting the holiday stage in a matchup of the last two Eastern Conference champions and the betting favorites to battle it out for East supremacy next season. The slate also includes a rematch of 2022’s most contentious playoff series with Ja Morant’s Grizzlies visiting Stephen Curry and the reigning champion Warriors.
Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Nets are nowhere to be found. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are mainstays of the NBA’s Christmas day slate — when they’re available, that is. But with Durant’s status in Brooklyn — and Irving’s to a lesser degree — anything but clear at this point of the offseason, the NBA has apparently decided against the risk of featuring a Nets team in the midst of a full-blown rebuild on the holiday docket.
[Set, hut, hike! Create or join a fantasy football league now!]
The NBA will face more competition than ever this Christmas with the NFL dropping its gloves and going all in on the holiday turf that was previously the purview of the NBA. The NFL has three games scheduled on Christmas this season for the first time. Thankfully for the NBA, Christmas doesn’t fall on a Sunday every year.
