NEW YORK — The Oklahoma City Thunder felt slighted last season when they were left off the NBA’s Christmas schedule.
That won’t be an issue this year.
Reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the NBA champions will be working at home for the holiday this season, hosting the San Antonio Spurs as part of the league’s annual Dec. 25 quintupleheader. The San Antonio-Oklahoma City showdown is set to tip off at 2:30 p.m. Eastern.
The other Christmas games, released by the NBA on Tuesday, have the Cleveland Cavaliers visiting the New York Knicks at noon, the Dallas Mavericks visiting the Golden State Warriors at 5, the Houston Rockets visiting the Los Angeles Lakers at 8, and the Minnesota Timberwolves visiting the Denver Nuggets at 10:30.
The full regular-season schedule — 80 of the 82 games for all teams — is set to be released Thursday. The remaining two games for each club will be filled in December, based on how teams fare in the NBA Cup in-season tournament.
“They make the schedule. We play it,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said last season, when asked about his club not being picked for the lineup on Dec. 25, a high-profile date because of the TV exposure. “Our players, I know, would have liked to play on Christmas because that’s such a staple day in the NBA season. But we can’t control that.”
Well, they sort of did control their Christmas scheduling fate this season.
The NBA champions typically get invited to play on Christmas the following season, and Oklahoma City, after a dominant run to the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, beat the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals this summer as the best-of-seven title series went the distance. Eastern Conference champion Indiana is among the Christmas snubs this year, perhaps not surprising after losing star guard Tyrese Haliburton in Game 7 of the title series to an Achilles tear that will sideline him for the entirety of this season, then losing center Myles Turner to the Milwaukee Bucks during free agency.
The Knicks will be playing their 58th Christmas game, extending their NBA record. The first Christmas game in league history was at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1947.
The Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Phoenix Suns played on Christmas last season and didn’t make the Dec. 25 cut this season, replaced by the Thunder, the Cavs (who were the East’s No. 1 seed) and the Rockets (who landed two-time NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant from the in an offseason blockbuster trade).
The Cavs and the Thunder are playing on Christmas for the first time since 2018, while the Rockets have a Dec. 25 game for the first time since 2019.
Lakers forward LeBron James, if he plays on the holiday, will be making his 20th Christmas appearance in his record 23rd NBA season. Only 12 NBA franchises have 20 Christmas games, and James could soon have that many as a player.
And it will be a big NBA holiday in Texas: All three of the state’s teams — the Mavericks, the Rockets and the Spurs — are playing on Christmas for the first time.
Meanwhile, NBC’s return to the NBA broadcast world after a 23-year absence officially starts with opening night on Oct. 21, when the Thunder will receive their championship rings before hosting the Rockets in the first game of the regular season at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.
That will be followed by the Warriors visiting the Lakers in the second game of the NBC doubleheader at 10. Those are the only two games on opening night.
NBC and Peacock, the network’s streaming service, will have four games on Jan. 19, which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The matchups have the Bucks visiting the Atlanta Hawks on Peacock at 1 p.m. Eastern, followed by three games on NBC: The Thunder visit the Cavs at 2:30, the Mavs visit the Knicks at 5 p.m., and the Celtics visit the Detroit Pistons at 8.
The Memphis Grizzlies, who typically play on the holiday, will not do so this season. The Grizzlies will be returning from Europe after facing the Orlando Magic on Jan. 15 in Berlin and on Jan. 18 in London.
The schedule was further fleshed out Wednesday, when Amazon Prime Video announced its NBA Cup broadcast schedule, with the streaming service slated to show 17 of the games, including the title contest.
The league also announced the overall NBA Cup schedule on Wednesday, with several matchups already assigned to broadcast networks.
Prime will show 10 NBA Cup group games and the knockout rounds. Its “NBA on Prime” Cup night will feature five straight weeks of group play doubleheaders starting Oct. 31. That night, the Celtics will visit the 76ers, while the Lakers will visit the Grizzlies.
On Nov. 7, the Spurs will host the Rockets. After that, the Nuggets will host the Warriors.
On Nov. 14, the Miami Heat visit the Knicks, while the Warriors visit the Spurs. On Nov. 21, the Cavs will host the Pacers, while the Rockets will host the Nuggets. On Nov. 28, the Knicks will host the Bucks, while the Lakers will host the Mavs.
The other 50 group games will be split between ESPN, NBC and NBA League Pass.
There will be group play Nov. 25 on NBC, when the 76ers host the Magics, and the Clippers visit the Lakers in an all-Los Angeles matchup.
ESPN will show a trio of group games on Nov. 26. The Pistons visit the Celtics, the Timberwolves visit the Thunder, and the Rockets visit the Warriors.