Christmas Day NBA is a tradition like no other. Twelve straight hours of basketball featuring the biggest stars, fiercest rivalries, and the top contenders in the league keep you occupied from gift unwrapping through to your third serving of turkey and mashed potatoes.
But not everyone is so lucky as to have a family of equally invested basketball diehards willing to watch along with every game over the course of the day, so here at Covers we’ve put together this handy breakdown of all five games on the NBA Christmas Day schedule and ranked them in order of watchability.
Ranking the NBA Christmas Day schedule
5. 76ers vs. Knicks, 12:00 p.m. ET
This game might come first thing in the afternoon and last on the rankings, but it should not be slept on.
Joel Embiid, perennial runner-up for the MVP award, is playing some of the best two-way ball of his career. He owns two of the three highest-scoring games of the season, including the 53-point masterpiece he dropped against the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday. He and James Harden remain one of the best offensive duos in basketball, and role players like De’Anthony Melton have broken out in the absence of Tyrese Maxey.
For their part, the New York Knicks have quietly become a defensive powerhouse after excising Evan Fournier, Derrick Rose, and Cam Reddish to the bench. They’ve played at the level of the league’s third-best defense over the past two weeks and have held four different teams to their season low in scoring.
New York has traditionally struggled against Harden, but now they have two young, tough defensive guards in Quentin Grimes and Deuce McBride that are quality matchups for him. As both teams like to lock down the paint and this one’s an early start, I’d be considering the Under at 219.5
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4. Lakers vs. Mavericks, 2:30 p.m. ET
There's always something sublime about watching Luka Doncic go against LeBron James. Luka has publicly acknowledged many times that LeBron was his idol growing up and the player whom he most modeled his game after, while in turn, James has heaped praise on Luka’s meteoric rise to superstardom.
Though they aren’t truly student and master, it does have the feeling of an Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Anakin Skywalker-style showdown, with Luka grasping out to snatch the torch from LeBron’s hand with James doing his best to deny him.
That would be reason enough to watch on its own, but would be doing a serious disservice to Anthony Davis, who has unequivocally been the Los Angeles Lakers’ best player to start the season. He’s risen to fourth in estimated plus-minus, and with better surrounding talent, would be in MVP conversations.
Both Luka and the Lakers’ stars have, in their own way, expressed dissatisfaction with the status quo and expect their front offices to be aggressive on the trade market. With 90% of the NBA eligible to be traded as of December 15th, it’s possible one or both of these teams make a significant roster move prior to the 25th. For that reason, I’d lean towards staying away from any early action until a bit closer to the date.
3. Suns vs. Nuggets, 10:30 p.m. ET
This game is a battle between two of the three best offenses in the NBA, who are also neck-and-neck with one another in the Western Conference standings as we speak.
The 16-11 Phoenix Suns have hit a bit of a rough patch, having lost four in a row, but will no doubt feel confident going against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets after having swept them out of the playoffs in 2021. However, Jokic has reinforcements this time, and the Suns are missing key contributors due to Cam Johnson’s injury and the ongoing bungling of the Jae Crowder situation.
Don’t underestimate the possibility that a duel between Devin Booker and Jamal Murray could be the leading highlight of the Christmas Day slate, as Booker continues to push his game to staggering new heights and Murray appears to have his groove back. It’s that exact kind of matchup that brings the best out of both players.
Jokic is quietly playing at an MVP level for a third straight season and Aaron Gordon is in the midst of a career year. This one should be an absolute shootout from the opening tip and the Suns' defense has proven to be merely mortal recently, as it stands now, I’d slightly lean Over at 231.5.
2. Grizzlies vs. Warriors, 8:00 p.m. ET
The Memphis Grizzlies and the Golden State Warriors have built a healthy distaste for one another after a few high-profile clashes in recent years. And bless them for it. True rivalries in the NBA have largely gone the way of the dodo, which makes the odd exception all the more precious.
The Grizzlies probably thought they’d dispatched the Warriors for good when they sent them home in the 2021 Play-In Tournament, only for Steph Curry & Co. to rally last season, win their fourth championship and eliminate Memphis in the process.
It’s a generational battle as well as a clash of styles and personalities, and it features arguably the two most exciting players in the NBA today in Ja Morant and Curry. When either one of them touches the ball, you can feel electricity coursing through the crowd in anticipation (or anxiety) because you truly never know what might happen next.
The Warriors proved they still have their fastball by crushing the ascendant Boston Celtics on Saturday, but the Grizzlies do as good a job on Steph as anyone. Recently-returned Jaren Jackson Jr. is also among leading Defensive Player of the Year odds candidates, so I’m leaning toward the Under at 222.5.
1. Bucks vs. Celtics, 5:00 p.m. ET
This game has everything, no ifs, ands, buts, or caveats. These are the two best teams in the NBA, and they arguably played the best series in last year’s playoffs. Even with a depleted roster, Giannis Antetokounmpo displayed a Terminator-like relentlessness that nearly outlasted the entire Celtics team.
The question hanging over the Boston Celtics from last year's Finals run was whether they could have beaten that Milwaukee Bucks team if Khris Middleton hadn’t been injured. While that question won’t be answered on Christmas Day, it does act as a dress rehearsal of sorts, as Middleton has returned to the Bucks lineup and reinvigorated their halfcourt attack in the process.
The Celtics should be receiving important reinforcements in time for their holiday showdown against the Bucks as well, in the form of big man Robert Williams III. Williams could return as soon as this coming Friday’s game against the Orlando Magic, but the Bucks matchup will be the first time that Boston will have their starting lineup fully healthy against a fellow contender.
That the Celtics have already been lapping the field without Williams is damn impressive, but I’m of the mind the Bucks win last season with Middleton in the fold. With Boston stumbling for the first time this season with back-to-back losses to the Warriors and Clippers, I’m considering the Bucks at +4.5.
