The 2024 Paris Olympics are nearing their conclusion, and that means the portion of the NBA offseason that includes actual basketball will soon be over, and it will be more than two months before competitive games resume. Fortunately, the NBA knows this and is starting to whet our appetites with information on the games to come.
On Thursday, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported the league’s 2024 Christmas Day slate. As always, the league’s marquee holiday features five of the most anticipated games on the schedule. Here are the games in question:
This slate includes last season’s champion (the Celtics), three of last season’s four finalists and eight of the 10 teams with the best current championship odds. The reigning MVP (Nikola Jokic), Defensive Player of the Year (Rudy Gobert), Most Improved Player (Tyrese Maxey) and Rookie of the Year (Victor Wembanyama) will all be playing. So with that in mind… which of these games should we most excited for? Let’s rank them.
5. Los Angeles Lakers at Golden State Warriors
It says quite a bit about a slate when a matchup between the two best players of an era, who faced off in the NBA Finals four times, are playing in its worst game. LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry is always delightful, and the last few years have produced several incredible regular-season matchups. But James and Curry are both playing for mediocre teams. This is the only game on the Christmas schedule to feature two teams that are not realistically in the championship picture. The Lakers and Warriors are like the eighth- and ninth-best teams in the field here, trailing only the Spurs. If this game had some sort of separate emotional resonance, like perhaps Klay Thompson returning to the Bay Area in a Lakers uniform, that might have pushed it up the list. But Thompson is a Maverick, and the Lakers and Warriors are Play-In-caliber teams. Factor in the possibility of injuries with all of the best players in this game in their 30s and it’s just impossible to justify ranking it any higher.
4. San Antonio Spurs at New York Knicks
The last time Victor Wembanyama faced the Knicks, he posted a casual 40-point, 20-rebound double-double. That game was in San Antonio, but historically speaking, almost every NBA legend has at least one marquee regular-season performance at Madison Square Garden. LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kobe Bryant have all scored 50 or more points in games there. The chance that Wembanyama has his first great MSG performance on Christmas is enough to make this game appointment television. Unfortunately, the rest of his roster is still relatively weak. The Knicks are a championship contender, but they’re playing a likely lottery opponent, and that knocks this game down the rankings a slot or two. Wembanyama vs. the Villanova alumni team will be fun, but doesn’t quite crack the top three.
3. Denver Nuggets at Phoenix Suns
The Nuggets and Suns have history together. Nikola Jokic and Devin Booker have faced off in the playoffs twice. Neither series went seven games, but both featured some bad blood. When the Nuggets and Suns played on Christmas in 2022, it was a 128-125 overtime thriller in Denver’s favor. Neither of these teams are particularly well-equipped to defend the other, either. Phoenix is going to have a below-average defense to throw at Jokic. The Nuggets just lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, which doesn’t bode well for them in defending a team with three star perimeter scorers. Expect an up-tempo shootout in this one.
2. Minnesota Timberwolves at Dallas Mavericks
The Western Conference finals may have only gone five games, but four of them were close. The first two games were decided by four combined points. Game 4 was decided by five, and while the final margin of Game 3 was nine points, but it was tied with under four minutes to play. Minnesota’s matchup issues against Dallas persist, but perhaps another year of experience (especially after an Olympic run) will give Anthony Edwards the boost he needs to match Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving shot-for-shot down the stretch in this matchup. The final few minutes were the only noncompetitive portions of those games between Dallas and Minnesota last year. If Edwards steps up, this one will be a doozy.
1. Philadelphia 76ers at Boston Celtics
Come on, what did you expect? The defending champions against the team that had the best offseason? Two northeastern cities with a literal century of bad sports blood? Joel Embiid against the team that has knocked him out of the playoffs three times? Any matchup between the three Atlantic Division heavyweights in New York, Boston and Philadelphia is going to be a must-watch. A Christmas bout between perhaps the two best teams in the conference is one of the best games on the entire regular-season schedule. There’s a very good chance these teams play in May. If you tune into any game on Christmas, it should be the possible preview for that postseason matchup.
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