Christmas day is traditionally the biggest day of the season for the NBA. It is and has always been very prestigious to end up on the Christmas slate. Million of Americans gather together and watches the NBA on national television the whole of December 25th. So let us go through the five selected games for Christmas day.
It has been a long time since the San Antonio Spurs played on Christmas. The Spurs are going to the Mecca of Basketball (Madison Square Garden) to play The New York Knicks. There is only one big reason for that and it is the wonder boy named Victor Wembanyama. The past seasons rookie of the year took huge strides during his first year in the NBA and he ended up well deservedly on the Christmas slate. He is the future of the league. Spurs have added the veterans Harisson Barnes and Chris Paul on their roster. The New York Knicks offseason has been good since they extended the deals for Brunson and Annuoby and they traded for Mikal Bridges.
This is a rematch of the Western Conference finals the past season, which Dallas won quite easily. Luka Doncic is one of the three biggest stars in the league today and he will face another young star in the shape of Anthony Edwards. The Mavs have added Klay Thompson, Najji Marshall and Quentin Grimes to their roster. Dallas is a better team than they were the past season even if they lost Derrick Jones Jr to the Clippers. Kyrie Irving is still in Dallas and he was awesome in the playoff run last season (except for the finals against Boston). The Timberwolves extended the deal with Mike Conley and The Twin Towers (Gobert & Towns) will be making life hard for everybody around the rim.
Joel Embiid has played in the NBA for more than ten years and he has never reached the Eastern Conference finals. He could be the best scorer today in the NBA. Embiid has lost three times to the Boston Celtics in the playoffs. Philadelphia added Paul George from the Clippers in free agency. A huge move for Philly as long as George is healthy. They extended Tyrese Maxey’s deal and signed one of the best players in the Olympics, Guerschon Yabusele, from Real Madrid. The Celtics are the reigning champions and had three players representing the United States at the Olympic Games in Paris. White, Holliday and Tatum. Boston extended the deals for White and Holliday. Boston are the clear cut favourites to win the title this upcoming season.
Steph Curry and Lebron James played together for Team USA at the Olympics. On Christmas day they will face each other again in San Francisco. The final series these two had against each other when Lebvron was in Cleveland will never be forgotten. The times are a bit different now and The Golden State Warriors have lost one of the three cornerstones in the franchise. After 13 years in the Bay area Klay Thompson has moved on and will no longer play with Steph and Draymond Green. He left for Dallas. The Warriors have added Buddy Hield and DeAnthony Melton to the roster. The Lakers offseason didn’t go too well at all. The ambition was to bring in a third star next to Lebron and Anthony Davis but nothing happened with either Klay Thompson or Demar DeRozan who ended up in Sacramento. JJ Redick is the new coach for The Lakers.
These two teams played each other in Denver at Christmas in 2022 . The Nuggets won that game in overtime and Aoron Gordon had a dunk over Landry Shamet that was truly remarkable. The Nuggets went on to win the title that season for the first time ever in franchise history. On the way to the title they defeated The Phoenix Suns in the second round of the playoffs. A couple of years earlier The Suns swept the Nuggets in the playoffs with Jamal Murray out due to injury. There is bad blood forsure between these two teams' fanbases. This time they play in Phoenix and Devin Booker and Kevin Durant are the two stars on the roster. I do not count Bradley Beal as a star. Booker was splendid at the Olympic games. Frank Vogel is out and Mike Budenholzer is the new coach for the Suns.
The Denver Nuggets had the world at it’s feet after they won the title a little bit more than a year ago. Since then they have lost Bruce Brown, Jeff Green and, most importantly, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Denver added Dario Saric and Russel Westbrook to the roster in the offseason. Right now there are many question marks surrounding Denver. Mostly regarding the guard Jamal Murray and his big contract extension. They have the best player in the world though, Nikola Jokic. That is a very good weapon to have. This is a very important season for Denver and if they fail there will be big changes in the franchise.