The 2025 NBA on Christmas Day Viewing Guide: Christmas Movie Edition

The American ideal viewing experience, up until recently, has been the following:

Football has Thanksgiving, basketball has Christmas Day.

We have simply lost the plot ever since the Coronavirus, when we were then allowed to have football games all willy-nilly any day of the week, because with the limited number of games and the stakes, we will undoubtedly watch. They’ve become hogs that are greedy at the trough and have us eating right out of their hands, no matter the abysmal matchup, and have thus decided to take the one day that is kind of the coming-out party for the NBA, which is the Christmas Day slate.

That being said, after last year, when Netflix and the NFL gave us the Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens, and Texans with a Beyoncé concert, the slate, no matter how much more valuable due to the fewer games, favors basketball! You’ve got the eliminated Cowboys against the Commanders that are starting a backup, the fighting-for-their-lives Lions against the eliminated Vikings, and the Broncos playing the Chiefs that are dead for the first time with no Patrick Mahomes.

Credit: NBA-YouTube

The NBA, meanwhile, hasn’t really gotten to the point where the teams that are in action are just going to turn it off until next year (sorry, Washington Wizards fans, who aren’t on this year’s slate).

As a viewing primer to set the stage, we’ll give each game on the slate and its story an adequate Christmas-movie comparison, as everyone has their own lists of “must-rewatches” around the holidays.

The only thing missing? The NBA has somehow found a way to make as many jerseys as possible without bringing back the limited-edition Christmas uniforms. 

Let’s have some basketball by the tree as we play with presents, everyone.

Cavaliers at Knicks // A Charlie Brown Christmas

The game in which we get the Disney+ Dunk the Halls alternate broadcast, where the players are animated characters!

The Cavs and Knicks were both seen as prohibitive favorites in the Eastern Conference this year despite having two disappointing exits at the hands of the Indiana Pacers last year, however, they both seem to have had two entirely different responses to the defeat, the Cavs being the “woe is me” Charlie Brown that is disgusted with the commercialism of the holidays, the Knicks being the other Peanuts that are dancing and putting on a play and caroling.

Cleveland has hovered around the .500 mark all season and has never had a moment where their core that they brought back in Garland, Mitchell, and Mobley have all consistently been healthy, and Garland is being floated in trade talks.

The Knicks, meanwhile, had a season coming off the “we’ve arrived” hype that ultimately ended in disappointment and a fired coach, and have been strictly business! They hoisted the NBA Cup and said, “No, we don’t want to raise a banner,” and have enjoyed playing with this core despite the Giannis rumors, and are top five in both offense and defense. They’re celebrating this holiday, the regular season, and the chance to rebound, with two different mindsets. The Cavs don’t know what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown!

Spurs at Thunder // Elf

The reigning champion Thunder, where the question is not whether they will win in the defense of their title, it’s when they will ever LOSE, given how dominant they are for both the immediate and the future, have the stability and everything lined up as big shot Walter Hobbs.

In walks a giant Elf that turns everything upside down for him, named Buddy, who does nothing but shove cookies into the VCR. That guy’s name is Victor Wembanyama, and the San Antonio Spurs, who want nothing but to shove Chet Holmgren’s cookies into places unholier than a VCR.

Just after the Spurs upset OKC in the NBA Cup with Wemby making his return, we finally have a true rivalry with both of these teams having animated unicorn big men, defensive ballhawks in the backcourt with Stephon Castle taking the leap to take on Jaylin Williams and SGA, and what could be the future of the Western Conference.

Mavericks at Warriors // Home Alone

Unfortunately, for two teams that were once NBA Finals-contending powerhouses, Cooper Flagg and Stephen Curry are the Kevin McCallisters in our story on each team, having to fight off the wet bandits on their own while the supporting casts have been either torn apart by Nico Harrison or mismanaged to keep an old core and get lightyears ahead with a young group simultaneously in Golden State.

Rockets at Lakers // Trading Places

The 1980s comedy that doesn’t get put in our annual holiday rotations enough features a role reversal from the peak of his powers, with Eddie Murphy becoming the wealthy mogul and Dan Aykroyd now down on his luck.

In seasons’ past, you’d be billing Rockets-Lakers as DURANT vs LEBRON in the brightest lights possible. With LeBron at age 40 and Durant on his 5th team now in year 18, they’ve traded places in terms of the roles on their teams, and that’s actually an even more reason to watch this game! LeBron gets to be the supercharged Andre Iguodala-type veteran support man for Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves, and a stable of guards.

The Lakers’ lack of size but ball-handlers galore going up against Durant, who just gets to play basketball and be the support scoring piece if he wants to, with the big bodies of Houston’s defensive powerhouse in baby Jokic, Alperen Sengun, force of nature linebacker Amen Thompson, and the immortal offensive rebounding Dothraki Steven Adams. It’s a marquee matchup as usual, but the reason behind it has traded places!

Timberwolves at Nuggets // How the Grinch Stole Christmas

We’ve got two teams for the nightcap that would love NOTHING more than to be thieves of joy and steal the holiday of Christmas from Whoville.

There’s an anointed “American superstar” complex the league is trying to give someone as charismatic as Anthony Edwards when he’s REALLY on, and he’s trying to steal that mantle from the prohibitive best big man in the world, Nikola Jokic. There’s also a specific villainous Grinch energy he brings in delightfully, hitting a three in someone like the sweetheart Cam Johnson, or something that embodies his mission on this Minnesota team, which still has a lot to prove with a losing record against the good teams and a winning record against the lesser competition.

Jokic is the Grinch for obvious reasons in that if Denver wins, it will likely be where he has a historic triple-double with quarterback-level passes and pull the Jim Carrey, “BUT I’M NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT!” line as the most miserable basketball player alive that would’ve wished he was by the fire with his pet horses.