FOR the seventh year in a row, five games are slated to be played in the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA) on Christmas Day.
The festive quintuple bill starts at high noon (or December 26, 1:00 a.m., Manila time) with an Eastern Conference duel between the Washington Wizards and New York Knickerbockers at the Madison Square Garden. It will mark the Knicks’ 50th Christmas Day appearance.
Other Christmas Day games include:
+ Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player and scoring champion Kevin Durant and cat-quick guard Russell Westbrook are back in the pink health as the Oklahoma City Thunder travel to San Antonio to face ageless Tim Duncan the defending league titlist Spurs (3:30 a.m., MT). A year ago, Westbrook registered a triple-double (14 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists) as Oklahoma City pulled off a 123-94 win over New York, which played without injured Carmelo Anthony.
Westbrook thus became the fifth player to record a triple-double on Christmas Day in NBA history. The others were LeBron James (Miami vs. LA Lakers, 2010), Billy Cunningham (Philadelphia vs. Detroit, 1970), John Havlicek (Boston vs. New York, 1967) and Oscar (The Big O) Robertson, who turned in the trick four times (Cincinnati vs. Seattle, 1967; Cincinnati vs. St. Louis, 1963; Cincinnati vs. LA Lakers, 1961; and Cincinnati vs. Detroit, 1960).
+ King James returns to South Beach for the first time since leaving the Miami Heat last summer following four fruitful seasons that resulted in four NBA Finals trips and a pair of league championships as his hometown (and original NBA employer) Cleveland Cavaliers take on the Florida squad (6:00 a.m.);
+ Comebacking Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls host Kobe Bryant and the struggling Los Angeles Lakers in the Tinseltown boys’ lone trip to the Windy City this season (9:00 a.m.); and
+ The league-leading Golden State Warriors, built around the majors’ highest-scoring tandem in Splash Brothers Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson and rookie NBA head coach Steve Kerr, clash with the Blake Griffin and Chris Paul-bannered Los Angeles Clippers in an all-Pacific Division duel at the Staples Center, where the Clippers are the Lakers’ co-tenants (11:30 a.m.).
For the Lakers, this will be their 16th straight Christmas Day contest but the first on the road in six years. In 2013, with Bryant out with an injury, the Lakers lost to Miami, 101-95, at the Staples Center. (The Lakers and Clippers are co-tenants at the Staples Center). Overall, the Lakers are 21-19 on Christmas Day, including 13-10 at home.
A healthy Bryant will be making his 16th Christmas appearance, the most by any player in league history. Earl (The Pearl) Monroe, Dolph Schayes and Shaquille O’Neal (now a minority owner with the Sacramento Kings) share second place with 13 each.
The New York Knickerbockers, one of only three founding NBA franchises still in existence the others being the Boston Celtics and Golden State (formerly Philadelphia then San Francisco) Warriors, own the all-time NBA mark for most Christmas Day appearances with 50, including this year’s game against the Wizards.
While the Gotham City outfit is a frosty 22-27 during the holiday, its 22 victories are the most ever by any NBA franchise, one more that the Lakers’ output.
Meanwhile, Bryant remains the NBA’s No. 1 scorer in Christmas games – despite last year’s absence – with 383 points, surpassing Oscar (The Big O) Robertson’s 377 in 12 appearances (31.4 ppg) and O’Neal’s 372 in 13 games (28.6 ppg).
Bryant is averaging at a 25.5-point clip on Christmas Day.
It has been an annual ritual for the NBA to schedule games on Christmas since 1947, or one year after it was
established initially as the Basketball Association of America.
The first Christmas Day games were played in 1947. Three games were held on that day. In the holiday opener at the old Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks whipped the Providence Steamrollers, 89-75.
Since the time, the NBA has scheduled games every year on Christmas Day, except in 1998 when a lockout (or labor dispute) canceled half of the 1998-99 regular season.
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