It is, perhaps shockingly so, incredibly well-known how synonymous American Thanksgiving is with American football.
Ask anyone with the vaguest idea of what Thanksgiving is, and they are liable to know it largely centres around turkey and gridiron, at least in the US.
Not as widely known is that basketball has a similar relationship with Christmas Day in the States. It has never been marketed this way as fiercely, at least not until recently, but no matter – for the basketball fan, Christmas Day is basketball day.
In the NBA’s eagerness to fill a programming void on Christmas, the schedule has expanded over time to a five-game, full-day offering. In the way that a normal person can spend an entire day binge-watching, say, Breaking Bad, the NBA fan can spend Christmas Day, from noon in the States until past midnight, with basketball.
Perfectly spaced apart, it is one day where the basketball fan can absorb the NBA in its totality, kind of the way a Premier League Saturday or NFL Sunday works.
Those around the game often speak of Christmas Day being kind of like the unofficial start to NBA season – over a quarter of the games are behind us, and we can really start to make sense of the league’s landscape.
So let’s make sense of the landscape by first making sense of what’s on offer this Christmas Day:
New Orleans Pelicans v Miami Heat (noon Eastern Time; 9pm UAE) – Tipped to make a big leap forward this year, after reaching the play-offs last season, and with Anthony Davis growing into an MVP candidate, New Orleans have instead completely torpedoed. The Heat are inconsistent, but with a top-10 offence good enough to take advantage of the Pelicans' league-worst defence.
Chicago Bulls v Oklahoma City Thunder (11.30pm UAE) – A meeting between the up-and-down Bulls are the suddenly clicking Thunder, 8-2 in their last 10. Still, Chicago's second-ranked defence could make a nice foil for Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook-led Oklahoma City.
Cleveland Cavaliers v Golden State Warriors (2am UAE) – A rematch of the 2015 Finals, and a delightful chance to see how Cleveland, with Kyrie Irving finally healthy, really stack up against Stephen Curry and Golden State. Definitely the game of the day.
San Antonio Spurs v Houston Rockets (5am UAE) – The Spurs are looking like the top challengers to the Warriors this year, with the league's most stifling defence. The Rockets have mostly been dysfunctional, but it should still be fun to watch offensive virtuoso James Harden try to crack San Antonio.
Los Angeles Clippers v Los Angeles Lakers (7.30am UAE) – Okay, so a swing and a miss on this one. The Clippers are misfiring and the Lakers are plain old bad. Still, there's a chance Kobe gets really up for this one, which make for something memorable.
jraymond@thenational.ae
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