Ranking The NBA’s Christmas Day Games

These two teams may be at the bottom of this list, but a matchup between two surprising teams is better than most. Boston has underperformed this year while the Knicks are overachieving to an extent, and it’ll be interesting to see if New York can pull off the “upset” over the 16-12 Celtics.

Back in 2010, Fabolous once said, “They said New York was dead, so I led the revival.” The Knicks haven’t done much since. Now, Kristaps Porzingis is in Loso’s shoes, and the second-year European is quickly ascending above his peers and will have the National stage to put his Unicorn abilities on display.

The Celtics, who I picked to finish second in the Conference, have wholly underperformed to start the season. Isaiah Thomas is playing like an All-Star, but Boston’s identity is nothing like it was last year. Their lockdown defense has cracked, and they’ve regressed to a middle-of-the-pack team.

The City of Angels has their two teams face off for the second-straight year, and if the Lakers had kept up their early season performance, it’d be a must-watch. Come to think of it; the same could get said for the Clippers.

Both teams started off the season impressively; the Clippers had the NBA’s best record while the Lakers looked like they could sneak into the playoffs. Since then, LAC has been a mess on both ends of the floor and also have lost Blake Griffin to knee surgery, hampering their entertainment value. They should still be able to beat the Lakers, though, because Luke Walton’s young team has a hit a wall going 100 miles per hour.

They’ve dropped ten of their last 11 games, and the offense has been reduced to smoldering inconsistency; one game they’ll 112 and immediately follow it up with less than 95. Regardless, the Lakers have an aggregate of talent that is severely impressive when they’re nailing shots. Besides, who doesn’t want a little late-night Swaggy P?

Dwyane Wade is still great enough to warrant a view on Christmas. The same applies to the Spurs. Realistically, the game itself won’t be too exciting. Both teams play “boring” basketball, but the Spurs are fun to watch because they execute “boring” basketball so beautifully.

Chicago has the advantage of star power. Not many forwards in the league are better than Jimmy Butler, and Wade is bound to make a couple of plays that make you question Father Time’s push on him. Kawhi Leonard is the only superstar on the Spurs, but he, too, is a joy to watch.

What’s also going to be fun to watch is if San Antonio can pick apart the Bulls, who have struggled at times throughout the years. The Spurs are much different this season, and, despite their 23-5 mark, they’re not dominating teams at the rate that fans are used to.

I know, I know. Minnesota isn’t good. But, who wouldn’t want to sit down with a plate of cookies and watch Russell Westbrook do battle with Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine?

Westbrook just posted back-to-back-to-back games with 46, 42 and 45 points, respectively, and he’ll be well-rested with the league giving an off-day on Christmas Eve. He’s going to be on triple-double watch, certainly, but his anger and ferocity wholly contradict the Christmas spirit, but this spry Timberwolves team is just as competitive as he is — even if their record doesn’t show it.

On a day where movies like Home Alone and Frosty The Snowman dominate, Westbrook is Die Hard.

KAT and Wiggins have been as good as we’ve expected them to be, but LaVine is showing impressive development as an all-around scorer. Hopefully, this game is uptempo and features numerous fastbreaks. If it doesn’t, I’ll regret putting it this high on the list.

Did you expect anything less?

For the first time since Golden State blew their 3-1 lead, the two squads will meet for the first time, and it could get messy. A competitive disdain for each other has been fermenting all summer, and this will be the most entertaining game come tip-off.

LeBron James and Kyrie Irving will, hopefully, play like they did last June, while Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson elevate themselves to the occasion. Furthermore, they will be a coaching war raged between Tyronn Lue and Steve Kerr. Even though it’s just a regular season game, it’ll provide a glimpse to how each team will operate against one another if they meet in the Finals again.