NBA Christmas Day Games Revealed

The full 2023-24 NBA schedule is expected to be released later this month, but already, there have been some leaks.

As our Brandon Santomauro relayed here, we now know the four teams that will be playing on opening night — the Lakers, Warriors, Suns and defending champion Nuggets.

But that’s not all. Per Shams Charania of The Athletic, the five Christmas Day games have also been set. Those games also involve the usual suspects, and despite the fact the Lakers finished with the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference last season, LeBron James is always a draw.

So he again will play on Christmas Day, less than a week before his 39th birthday.

Here are all the Christmas games for 2023, per Charania:

• Bucks at Knicks
• 76ers at Heat
• Celtics at Lakers
• Mavericks at Suns
• Warriors at Nuggets

Perhaps the most interesting of these teams are the 76ers, who may or may not have James Harden, and the Mavericks, who couldn’t even qualify for the play-in tournament last season. Harden has requested a trade and the Mavs are again trying to make it work with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

Anyway, the NBA’s biggest challenge on Christmas Day isn’t the fact that many people are hanging out enjoying time with their families and limiting TV time — it’s that the NFL now plays Christmas Day games, too.

Nonetheless, pro basketball has a strong and traditional fanbase in its own right, and the aforementioned are the games that will be delivered to them on Christmas Day.

For the record, the full NBA schedule was released on August 17 last year, and August 20 the year before that.

FYI: #NBA schedule for 2023-24 should be released within next two weeks, based on previous seasons (August 17 last year, August 20 the year before that).

More hoops https://t.co/07DB6szupr pic.twitter.com/rLtFzDz5UL

— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) August 9, 2023