The NBA Christmas Day schedule — the league’s biggest regular-season stage — had been leaking out game by game through the weekend.
Now we have the full NBA Christmas Day schedule, according to multiple reports:
Philadelphia vs. New York
Milwaukee vs. Boston
Memphis vs. Golden State
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Dallas
Phoenix vs. Denver
That slate should become official this week when the full schedule is released. Here are a few thoughts on that Christmas lineup.
• James Harden leaked that the Sixers were playing the Knicks.
• The NBA did an outstanding job of hitting a lot of storylines. There’s the Celtics vs. Bucks growing rivalry, and a good balance of the game’s rising stars vs. the old guard (Ja Morant vs. Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic vs. LeBron James).
• No Brooklyn Nets or Miami Heat on Christmas. The Nets aren’t there because it’s impossible to predict what their roster will look like or how good they will be.
• If one team has the right to complain about being left out, it’s the Heat — they had the best record in the East last season, are contenders this season, and they have big stars (Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo). Still no love for the Heat.
• The Atlanta Hawks also got left off and Trae Young does not seem happy about it.
• Traditionally, the NBA has the Christmas Day sports calendar to itself, but with the holiday falling on a Sunday this year the league has to go up against a slate of three NFL games. That will not help the NBA’s traditional television ratings for the day.
• This is the second year in a row the Bucks and Celtics have faced off on Christmas Day.
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Warriors, Celtics, Bucks highlight NBA Christmas Day schedule originally appeared on NBCSports.com
