Christmas has become the NBA’s day. The NFL has Thanksgiving, and the NBA has Christmas. It has become the unofficial “real start” to the NBA season with many casual fans saying they don’t typically tune into the NBA until Christmas.
The Christmas day games have been leaked. The NBA was going to announce them Wednesday anyway, so it’s not a huge deal.
NBA will release its national TV schedule for the first week of the regular season, Christmas and MLK Day on Wednesday at 2 PM.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 7, 2018
Here are the reported matchups:
- Knicks and Bucks
- Celtics and 76ers
- Lakers and Warriors
- Thunder and Rockets
- Trail Blazers and Jazz
We don’t officially know who is home and away yet, but the Knicks and Bucks will play in Madison Square Garden because the Knicks are just about always at home if they’re playing on Christmas.
We know that the Lakers and Warriors will play at Oracle Arena.
It also sounds like the Blazers/Jazz game will be in Utah.
The Knicks and Bucks are the least enticing matchup. The Bucks have a good shot of being a top 3 or 4 seed in the East, and the Knicks should be tanking. Hopefully, we get an all-time performance from Giannis Antetokounmpo in The Garden.
Blazers/Jazz will probably be the 10 p.m. EST game, but it will be a good watch with both teams trying to win and being around the same tier of team.
The OKC Thunder and Houston Rockets are facing off for the second straight year. This time Carmelo Anthony will be on the Rockets and facing his former teammates. That should be a fun game.
The Celtics and Sixers figure to be two of the top three teams in the East next season, depending on if the Kawhi Leonard experience works out in Toronto. These two teams squared off in the playoffs a year ago and seem to have a brewing dislike for one another. That will be another good one, I’m sure.
The marquee game is obviously Lakers/Warriors, though. LeBron against Golden State once again, but this time LeBron has a brand new squad. We will get the best of both teams, and it will be the first big test we see from a young Lakers core.
The rest of the NBA schedule should be out soon, but the Christmas day games always seem to be as fun as it gets in the regular season.
Featured Image via Flickr/Doonvas
