NBA Updates PH – For the 76th year in a row, NBA basketball will be played on Christmas Day. For the 16th season in a row, a full five-game slate will keep the hoops action going from morning to night.
If seeing NBA stars play is on your list of things you want for Christmas, this year’s schedule will give you what you want.
Seven of the nine players who have been named Kia MVP in the past 15 seasons will be playing on Christmas Day:
- LeBron James of the Lakers (2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013)
- Kevin Durant of the Suns (2014)
- Stephen Curry of the Warriors (2015, 2016)
- James Harden and Joel Embiid of the 76ers (2018)
- Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks (19, 20)
- Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets (21, 22).
On Christmas Day, the defending champions of the Eastern Conference, the Miami Heat, are five games ahead of the other teams in their conference. These five teams consist of Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, and Boston Celtics, all of which they needed to defeat in order to get to the NBA Finals. On Christmas, games will be played by the Lakers (in 2020), Bucks (in 2021), Warriors (in 2022), and Nuggets (in 2023), which are the most recent four teams to win the NBA championship. The nightcap features a match between the two most recent victors.
25 December: Warriors vs. Nuggets (2:30 p.m. ET, ABC and ESPN)
The last thing on Christmas night is a game between the last two NBA winners. The 2022 Warriors beat the Nuggets in the first round on their way to their fourth title of this dynasty, with two-time Kia MVP Curry adding his first Finals MVP to his resume.
Last season, the Warriors were knocked out before they could face Denver in the conference finals. Meanwhile, the Nuggets made it to the Finals and won their first NBA title in club history. Jokic, who had won the Kia MVP award twice before, was named the Finals MVP for the first time.
25 December: Celtics vs. Lakers, 5:00 PM ET, ABC & ESPN
When James, Anthony Davis, and the Lakes play Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Celtics, it will be another scene in the NBA’s most famous rivalry. Both teams are going into the season with the goal of becoming the first team to win 18 NBA titles.
Last season, both games between the Celtics and the Lakers went into OT, and each time, Boston won by four points. Overall, Boston has won 165 of the 133 regular season games against the Lakers. They also have a 43-31 record against the Lakers in the playoffs.
25 December: 76ers vs. Heat, 8:00 PM ET, ESPN
Embiid should play against the Heat, who are the reigning champions of the Eastern Conference and are captained by Jimmy Butler, a former standout player for the Sixers. Embiid has already won the scoring title twice and is the current Kia Most Valuable Player.
The final score of the season series was 2-1 in favor of the Heat’s victory. Every single team won their game by a resounding margin of at least 20 points. In the final minute and a half of the series, Butler produced a spectacular diving reverse layup that won the game for Miami and gave them a 2-0 lead in the series.
25 December: Mavericks vs. Sun, 8:00 PM ET, ESPN
When Durant and Kyrie Irving played against each other for the first time after working together for three and a half years, it was a great overtime game between the Mavericks and the Suns. In that game, four players scored 30 or more points. For Phoenix, Durant had 37 points and Devin Booker had 36. For Dallas, Luka Doncic had 34 points and Irving had 30 points.
NBA fans were begging for a playoff meeting between those two teams after that game, but it didn’t happen. As a consolation, they will play each other again for Christmas.
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