Merry Christmas. Let’s basketball.
We have that and more in Monday’s NBA newsletter.
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The NBA has its standard five-game menu for Christmas Day. Here’s the schedule, quick and dirty.
Sixers at Knicks, 12 p.m. ET, ESPN
Cavaliers at Warriors, 3 p.m. ET, ABC
Wizards at Celtics, 5:30 p.m. ET, ABC
Rockets at Thunder, 8 p.m. ET, ABC
Timberwolves at Lakers, 10:30 p.m. ET, TNT
I have a viewing guide to help you prioritize and balance all of the other Christmas activities going on. Paul Flannery has this week’s List on everything the casual fan might have missed if they haven’t been paying attention this season. Share it with your friends.
Whitney Medworth has the Christmas edition of B-Sides for you, starring Victor Oladipo’s deep and abiding love for Home Alone. Our team blogs made Christmas wishes of their own. Our crew discussed the good and bad of Christmas jerseys. Kofie Yeboah reminisced about the greatest Christmas NBA commercial ever.
We have lots more coming, too. If you have your phone going while watching games and pounding nog, check out @SBNationNBA for fun and mirth (no mir though).
Tim Bontemps argues that Christmas could help the NBA climb past the NFL.
All 24 Warriors-Cavaliers games since LeBron went back to Cleveland, ranked.
Is Wizards-Celtics really still a rivalry despite Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder moving on?
One of my favorite things about the NBA’s heavy Christmas presence is all the videos of NBA stars going into the community to give a helping hand. This is a good Kevin Durant effort here in Oakland.
One year ago, Kyrie Irving hit a Christmas game-winner. Here’s everything we’ve learned about him since.
LATEST VIDEO FROM SB NATION
Big dog, little dog | Shaq vs. Kobe, Part 2
The “Shaq-Kobe beef” has become kind of a meme, just a flat cultural reference point. How to Make a Basket: Shaq vs. Kobe endeavors to go deeper than that, to figure out why and how these two legendary partners didn’t get along, and how they achieved such greatness in spite of that. Part 2 begins in 2000. After Shaq and Kobe won their first championship with the Lakers, it seemed like the feud between their two stars might be over. But while Shaq relished in finally reaching the mountaintop, Kobe was dissatisfied. He spent the whole summer working on his shot, hoping to become such an elite scorer that no one could deny him first-option status in the Laker offense. The Lakers kept winning, but Shaq didn’t agree with Kobe’s plan, and their conflicts in viewpoint inflamed the “work beef.”
Klay Thompson doesn’t know the words to “Jingle Bells.”
All Christmas gifts are great. Some are greater.
Zach Lowe on the Rockets’ chance to disrupt the Warriors dynasty.
The Rockets filed a protest over their Friday loss to the Clippers. As it turns out, an important Clipper should have fouled out with 3:10 left, but the officials mistakenly assigned the violation to Lou Williams. The Rockets want to replay the final 3:10 without that player … rookie second-round pick Jawun Evans.
Remember LeBron’s feisty, combative press conference after the Heat lost the 2011 NBA Finals? He just did that again, but instead of being salty about broke people clowning him he was very sweet and serene about his family being more important than five finals losses.
Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
