The NBA has released the schedule for its marquee games this upcoming 2021-22 season. As usual, the 5-game Christmas Day slate will feature some of the league's brightest stars, as well as intriguing match-ups among the NBA's top current rivalries. The main headline will feature a colossal showdown between the NBA's two powerhouse teams, the Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers.
The other match-ups include Stephen Curry's Golden State Warriors going up against the 2021 Western Conference Champion Phoenix Suns, while the Boston Celtics get a crack at the defending NBA Champion Milwaukee Bucks. Trae Young's Atlanta Hawks will pay a visit to Madison Square Garden to face the team they knocked off in last year's playoffs, the New York Knicks, while the Dallas Mavericks and the Utah Jazz face off in an interesting Western Conference match-up. The latter two contests will bookend NBA Christmas, respectively.
Given the 10-team lineup, there are definitely some teams out there who were left out of performing under one of the league's most highly-anticipated game days. With that said, here are the three biggest snubs in the NBA's Christmas Day schedule.
NBA Christmas Day schedule snubs
1. Miami Heat
The Miami Heat had one of the more eventful free agencies this offseason. The addition of a couple of NBA champions in Kyle Lowry and PJ Tucker definitely made Miami a major problem and a worthy contender in the East. Being one of the larger markets in the NBA and featuring some top stars in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, it's worth wondering why the Heat were not included in this year's slate of NBA Christmas games.
The Heat did not have the same success in the 2020-21 season compared to the previous, which could have toned down their luster. But remember, this team just made the NBA Finals a year ago. With their big moves this past summer, the Heat should definitely be one of the teams to look out for this upcoming season and could have been a great Christmas Day draw.
Perhaps the Heat made more sense than the Boston Celtics as an opponent for the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks from a narrative standpoint. Excluding one of the winningest franchises in the league would have been hard for the NBA. But Miami and Milwaukee have had some recent history with each other.
They have gone toe-to-toe in the past two postseasons, with each team getting a series win over the other. With both teams fielding championship-worthy squads, the NBA could have also easily marketed Miami-Milwaukee as a battle between the last two Eastern Conference champions.
The Los Angeles Clippers have found themselves playing on Christmas in eight of the last 10 occasions. They play in a huge market in Los Angeles and also have one of the highest valuations in the NBA, per Forbes. The Clippers also just came off their best season in franchise history, having made the Western Conference Finals for the first time. With that, they certainly deserved a spot on the December 25 slate of games.
However, the Clippers are currently without Kawhi Leonard, who is sidelined indefinitely due to a partially torn ACL and likely won't be available on Christmas. Perhaps his absence could have played a factor as to why they were excluded in the holiday slate this season.
Nonetheless, even without Leonard, it is arguable that the Clippers could have been a more intriguing match-up against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks, instead of the Utah Jazz. L.A. and Dallas have faced each other in the last two NBA playoffs, with the former coming out on top in both series. From a narrative perspective, that Christmas Day face off definitely made a lot more sense.
The Clips still have Paul George, anyway. He is still one of the top players in the NBA. That PG13-Luka match-up, considering the battles they have had as of late, is definitely a compelling storyline if the NBA decided to go in that direction.
When the NBA released the Christmas Day schedule, NBA Twitter quickly noticed the exclusion of the 2020-21 NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic. Nuggets Nation and NBA fans alike were up in arms over Jokic's holiday snub. In fact, according to StatMuse, this year marks the first time since 2008 that the reigning MVP won't be featured on December 25th.
Nikola Jokic is the first reigning MVP to not get a Christmas Day game since the NBA went to 5 games on Christmas in 2008. pic.twitter.com/C05FQVkZax
— StatMuse (@statmuse) August 17, 2021
The Joker is obviously one of the brightest stars in the NBA and his presence alone on the Denver Nuggets should have warranted them a spot on the marquee game day. Denver has also been included in the past two Christmas Day lineups. So why didn't the NBA include them with the reigning MVP on their squad?
Maybe the league saw how the Nuggets' upcoming season will look like. With Jamal Murray out and sidelined with a torn ACL, Denver does not have a very promising outlook for the 2021-22 campaign. Perhaps this is the reason why the NBA did not include them on the Christmas Day schedule this year.
Nonetheless, given the current 5-game lineup right now, perhaps the Nuggets could have also gotten a crack at the Mavs, instead of the Jazz. The NBA could have presented the Dallas versus Denver match-up as a showdown between two of the best European players in the NBA today in Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic.
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