The NBA season is still over two months away, but players are hard at work to get better for their upcoming campaign. Around this time, the NBA usually releases their NBA schedule, but as we wait for those, here's a look at the newly announced Christmas Day schedule for 2018, one that will be highly-anticipated and jam-packed with talent:
Philadelphia 76ers @ New York Knicks – 12 PM EST on ESPN
The Philadelphia 76ers, if healthy, will be one of the most fun teams to watch this season. After drafting guard Markelle Fultz and getting Ben Simmons as well as Joel Embiid healthy, the Sixers are going to be everyone's favorite League Pass team. They'll be taking on a New York Knicks team that no one knows what will look like due to the uncertainty of Carmelo Anthony's future. However, the team looks insistent on keeping Anthony if they don't get a good return for him and they'll still have Kristaps Porzingis, so there's a good chance this Christmas Day matchup will be very intriguing.
Cleveland Cavaliers @ Golden State Warriors – 3PM EST on ABC
For the third consecutive NBA season, we're going to see the Warriors take on the Cavaliers on Christmas Day. The two teams have met in three consecutive NBA Finals and have played each other 24 times from 2014 to 2017. Both teams know each other very well, and don't particularly like each other much. The biggest, series-changing question mark for this is whether or not guard Kyrie Irving will be a member of the Cavs after asking for a trade in early July. If Irving is indeed gone, the Cavs will likely look very different with the return they get for him as well as Derrick Rose at the point guard helm.
Washington Wizards @ Boston Celtics – 5:30 PM EST on ABC
Fresh off of signing a four-year extension that will lock him up as a Wizard for six years, John Wall will lead his Wizards into Boston to take on the new-look Celtics, who added former Jazz star Gordon Hayward. The Celtics are expected to seriously contend with the Cavaliers this season, and this will be a rematch of the 2017 East semifinal series that featured seven entertaining games as well as a potential playoff series in the 2018 postseason.
Houston Rockets @ Oklahoma City Thunder – 8 PM EST on ABC
The Rockets traded for one of the best point guards in Chris Paul. The Thunder traded for one of the best small forwards in Paul George. On Christmas Day, both teams will have played together for nearly two months and will likely make for one of the most interesting matchups of the season. The dynamic between Paul and James Harden will be a thing to watch for considering both are incredibly ball-dominant. On the Thunder's side, Westbrook will have to defer to George at times, especially considering the need to make this thing work with PG-13 being in the final year of a contract.
Minnesota Timberwolves @ Los Angeles Lakers – 10:30 PM EST on TNT
The Lakers continue to make appearances on Christmas Day despite their four consecutive seasons of futility and they'll be taking on the newly-revamped Timberwolves team that added Jimmy Butler, Jeff Teague, Taj Gibson, and Jamal Crawford this offseason. This season, however, Los Angeles has Lonzo Ball on their side, who has sold out Las Vegas Summer League tickets on his own and is surely to bring the cost of going to a Lakers game up wih all the hype surrounding the Chino Hills native. After a number of seasons without playoff appearances between the two sides, this matchup could very well be a rivalry of the future, led by their young stars.
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