Ranking the NBA’s five 2024 Christmas Day games: Celtics vs. 76ers tops list, marquee names at bottom

The 2024 Paris Olympics are over, which means the part of the NBA offseason that involves actual basketball is over as well. It will be less than two months before competitive play resumes. Fortunately, the NBA knows this and has already piqued our excitement by making an announcement. 2024–25 regular season schedule On Thursday.

The league’s 2024 Christmas Day slate is pretty impressive. As always, the league’s marquee holiday includes five of the most anticipated games on the schedule. These games are:

This list includes last season’s champion (the Celtics), three of last season’s four finalists and eight of the 10 teams with current championship odds. The reigning MVP (Nikola Jokic), Defensive Player of the Year (Rudy Gobert), Most Improved Player (Tyrese Maxey) and Rookie of the Year (Victor Wembanyama) will all be playing. So with that in mind… which of these games should we be most excited for? Let’s rank them.

5. Los Angeles Lakers vs. Golden State Warriors

It says a lot about the slate when the two best players of an era, who have faced each other in the NBA Finals four times, are now playing the worst of the bunch. LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry is always enjoyable, and there have been several incredible regular-season matchups over the years. But both James and Curry are playing for mediocre teams. This is the only game on the Christmas schedule that features two teams that aren’t realistically in the championship picture. The Lakers and Warriors are like the eighth and ninth best teams in the region, trailing only the Spurs. If this game had some kind of different emotional resonance, like Klay Thompson returning to the Bay Area in a Lakers uniform, it might have moved higher on the list. But Thompson is a fantastic player, and the Lakers and Warriors are play-in-caliber teams. It’s impossible to rank it higher considering all of the best players in the game are likely injured in their 30s.

4. San Antonio Spurs vs. New York Knicks

The last time Victor Wembanyama faced the Knicks, he posted a 40-point, 20-rebound double-double. That game was in San Antonio, but historically speaking, nearly every NBA legend has had at least one marquee regular-season performance at Madison Square Garden. LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kobe Bryant have all scored 50 or more points in games there. The prospect of Wembanyama making his first great MSG performance on Christmas is reason enough to put this game on television. Unfortunately, the rest of their roster is still relatively weak. The Knicks are a championship contender, but they’re playing a potential lottery opponent, and that knocks this game down a slot or two in the rankings.

The Nuggets and Suns have a lot of history. Nikola Jokic and Devin Booker have faced off in the playoffs twice. Neither series went seven games, but both had some sourness. When the Nuggets and Suns played on Christmas in 2022, it was a 128-125 overtime thriller in favor of Denver. Neither of these teams is particularly equipped to defend the other. Phoenix will have a below-average defense against Jokic. The Nuggets just lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, which doesn’t bode well for them in defending a team with three-star perimeter scorers. Expect a fast shootout in this matchup.

2. Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Dallas Mavericks

The Western Conference Finals may have only featured five games, but four of them were very close. The first two games were decided by four combined points. Game 4 was decided by five points, and while Game 3’s final margin was nine points, it came down to less than four minutes with the game to play. Minnesota’s matchup issues against Dallas remain, but perhaps another year of experience (especially after attending the Olympics) will give Anthony Edwards the boost he needs to go shot-for-shot with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving in this matchup. The final few minutes were the only non-competitive parts of those games between Dallas and Minnesota last year. If Edwards steps up, this will be a great matchup.

1. Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics

Come on, what did you expect? A matchup between the defending champion and the team that had the best offseason? Two Northeastern cities that have had the worst games in over a century? A matchup between Joel Embiid and the team that has knocked him out of the playoffs three times? Any matchup between the three giants of the Atlantic Division in New York, Boston and Philadelphia is worth watching. A Christmas showdown between perhaps the two best teams in the conference is one of the best games in the entire regular-season schedule. There’s a very good chance these teams will play in May. If you watch any game on Christmas, it should be a potential preview of that postseason matchup.