The 2022-23 NBA schedule is expected to be released in the coming days, but there have already been several leaks of key games on the league’s calendar. It has previously been reported that the reigning champion Golden State Warriors is expected to host LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on opening night of the season, which is scheduled for Oct. 18.
In addition to one of the opening games on the league’s calendar, all five matches on Christmas Day were also reported. One of the most important days on the NBA calendar, these games are usually star-studded and sometimes feature rematches from the previous year’s playoffs or pit two of the league’s top stars against one another. Although the regular season will already be two months old by Christmas, the full schedule of games also serves as the unofficial start of the NBA season for some casual fans.
While nothing has been made official yet, here are the five games expected to take place over Christmas:
The NBA has certainly hit the mark with some of the league’s top stars, both young and old, and all of these reported matchups have tantalizing storylines.
The Warriors vs. Grizzlies game will be a re-run of last season’s Western Conference Semifinals, in which both teams didn’t shy away from trash-talking even after the Warriors had eliminated the Grizzlies. When the Warriors eventually won the championship, several Golden State players made sure to throw some not-so-subtle jabs at the Grizzlies, including Draymond Green and Ja Morant, who were hoping their two teams would meet on Christmas Day. Well, Green and Morant got their wish, and this matchup is sure to be highly anticipated.
Though the Lakers and Mavericks don’t have the playful trash speeches that the Warriors and Grizzlies do, it will show the face of the league in LeBron James and one of the future faces of the league in Luka Doncic. Those two teams met at Christmas two seasons ago, resulting in the Mavericks being blown out in Los Angeles, but a lot has happened since that dud of a 2020 matchup. The Mavericks are behind Doncic’s MVP-level performance during the playoffs due to a run to the Western Conference Finals, and the Lakers will be looking to return to the playoffs after missing the cut last season. It’s hard to see how this game will end as both teams could still make squad moves ahead of this game, but it should be more entertaining than the matchup we had two seasons ago.
The third reported game on this list could be a preview of the Western Conference Finals as the Nuggets host the Suns. Denver should be perfectly healthy as Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. are both expected to return to the starting lineup after both players missed all of last season through injury. Then the reigning two-time league MVP Nikola Jokic takes center stage. He’ll have some help again as Denver hopes to prove their place in the championship talks. The Nuggets will reportedly host the Suns, per the Denver Post, which is a replay of the Western Conference Semifinals from two seasons ago. The Nuggets were without Murray in that playoff series against the Suns, so now they can show Phoenix what it’s like to play at full strength against a Denver team.
The Knicks-Sixers matchup might not be the most exciting matchup on this list, but it features some of the best players in the league in the likes of Joel Embiid and James Harden. Though the Knicks don’t have the smartest names on their roster to take on Embiid and Harden, it will be a good test for a New York team hoping its big offseason takeover of Jalen Brunson will propel that roster into a playoff streak. candidate can make .
The last reported matchup between the Celtics and Bucks is a repeat of last season’s Eastern Conference Semifinals. In one of the best playoff series back a season, the Bucks lost to the Celtics in seven games, all without their second-best player in Khris Middleton, who sustained an MCL sprain in the first round of the postseason. Middleton recently underwent wrist surgery in July but is expected back just before the start of the season so will be ready when that rematch happens. However, this matchup could be very different if the Celtics manage to pull off a trade to land Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant. We’ll have to wait and see what becomes of the Durant Sweepstakes, but no matter what happens to it, this matchup – as well as the rest of the entire list of games – won’t be left out on Christmas Day.