Oklahoma City Thunder felt slighted last season when it was left off the NBA’s Christmas schedule. That won’t be an issue this year.
Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the NBA champions Thunder will be working at home for Christmas this season, playing host to Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs as part of the league’s annual December 25 quintupleheader.
The other Christmas games, released by the NBA on Tuesday: Cleveland Cavaleiers at New York Knicks, Houston Rockets at LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers, No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg and Dallas Mavericks visiting Golden State Warriors, and Minnesota Timberwolves playing at Denver Nuggets.
Some NBA Cup games are scheduled to be released Wednesday and the full schedule — 80 of the 82 games for all teams — is to be released on Thursday. The remaining two games for each club will be filled in December based on how teams fare in the NBA Cup.
“They make the schedule. We play it,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said last season, when asked about his club not being picked for the Dec. 25 lineup. “Our players, I know, would have liked to play on Christmas because that’s such a staple day in the NBA season. But we can’t control that.”
Well, they sort of did control their Christmas scheduling fate this season.
The NBA champion typically gets invited to play on Christmas the following season; Oklahoma City beat Indiana Pacers in a seven-game NBA Finals last season. The Eastern Conference champion Pacers are among the Christmas snubs this year, after losing Tyrese Haliburton to an Achilles tear that will sideline him for the entirety of this season and seeing Myles Turner opt to sign with Milwaukee in free agency.
The Knicks will be playing their 58th Christmas game, extending their NBA record. The first Christmas game in league history was at Madison Square Garden in 1947.
Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns played on Christmas last season and didn’t make the December 25 cut this season, replaced by Cleveland (which was the East’s No. 1 seed), Houston (which landed Kevin Durant in an offseason blockbuster from the Suns) and the Thunder.
Cleveland and the Thunder are playing on Christmas for the first time since 2018. The Rockets have a Christmas game for the first time since 2019.
James, if he plays on the holiday, will be making his 20th Christmas appearance in his record 23rd NBA season. Only 12 NBA franchises have 20 Christmas games, and James could soon have that many as a player.
And it’ll be a big NBA holiday in Texas: All three of the state’s teams are playing on Christmas for the first time.