NBA

Ranking The Top 5 NBA Christmas Day Games Of Al-Time

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By
Zach Wolpin
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Zach Wolpin Sports Editor

Zach Wolpin is an NBA and NFL expert who's been betting on the league for over three years now. Wolpin has been a fan of the NBA and has been watching for a decade and a half. He covers the latest news and stories surrounding the league daily. His passion in life is watching sports and being able to share that through his sports writing. He has written about the NBA and other sports leagues through various media outlets over the years like Sir Charles In Charge, G-Men HQ, and TAP into South Plainfield. Before he became an NBA News Writer, Wolpin attended Montclair State University where he graduated in 2021. He studied Sports Media and Writing while in school.

All posts by Zach Wolpin
Sports Editor

Updated23 Dec 2022

NBA Christmas basketball pic

Merry Christmas to you and yours for those reading today. It’s Christmas once again in the NBA and the league is back with five marquee matchups for all those around the world to enjoy today. The Sixers will play the Knicks at 12:00pm, LeBron and the Lakers are in Dallas to play the Mavericks at 2:30, and the Bucks square off with the Celtics at 5:00. Later in the at 8:00, the Grizzlies will be on the road vs the Warriors and finally the Suns and the Nuggets play at 10:30pm. 

The league has been playing games on Christmas Day since 1947 and it’s a day that all NBA fans look forward to. There’s something different about NBA basketball on Christmas Day. We’ve seen some truly iconic matchups over the years and the stars always come out to play in this type of setting. With that being said, let’s look at what we think are the Top 5 NBA Christmas Day matchup’s of all-time are.

Top 5 NBA Christmas Day games of all-time

5. Chicago Bulls vs Lakers, 2011 

Coming in at number five on our list is the Christmas day game between Chicago and LA in 2011. This was a prime-time matchup between at the time reigning MVP Derrick Rose vs the legendary Kobe Bryant. The brightest stage was set for two of the leagues biggest superstars.

The game was not as high scoring as the NBA is today. Bryant and the Lakers held a 69-68 lead entering the fourth quarter. LA controlled the ball for much of the fourth and had a six-point lead with a minute to go, but Chicago’s Luol Deng scored five unanswered points in 25 seconds and cut the lead to one with 20.4 seconds left on the clock.

Chicago forced Bryant to turn the ball over with a double team and and the ball was in Derrick Rose’s hands to get the win. Rose sized up Derek Fisher with 11 seconds remaining and hit an insane floater over the outstretched arms of Pau Gasol and gave the Bulls the lead with 4.8 left. To seal the victory for Chicago, Deng blocked Bryant’s game-winning attempt and the Bulls stole a game from the Lakers in an unforgettable Christmas Day matchup.

4. Warriors vs Clippers, 2013 

Steph Curry and Chris Paul are widely thought of as two of the best point guards of all-time. Earlier in their careers, they met for an epic showdown of Christmas Day in 2013. Curry was still establishing his dominance in the league and Paul was highly regarded as the best PG in the league at the time.

Top-level basketball was played all throughout the game, but it is remembered more for how chippy it was throughout the entire game. Draymond Green was ejected in the third quarter for elbowing Blake Griffin in the head, who was then ejected himself in the fourth after receiving his second technical foul. Curry and Paul dueled back and forth to try and get their team a win. This game fueled the Warriors vs Clippers rivalry for years to come. Golden State etched out a close 105-103 win.

3. Lakers vs Heat, 2003 

The historic duo of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant were split up after the 2003 season. Shaq was traded to Miami and the NBA decided his first time back in LA would be for a Christmas day matchup with his former team. LA were no longer the power-house they once were when O’Neal was on the team. Bryant is one of the greatest of all-time, but even those players still need another superstar by their side to reach the top of the NBA peak.

Miami came into the game as heavy favorites and there was heavy tension in the building for a lot of the game. The Heat came into that game with a ten-game win streak and the Lakers gave them a run for their money. O’Neal and Bryant were going at it all night. Shaq fouled out with two minutes to go in the fourth, and would miss the OT period as well. Dwayne Wade came up clutch for the Heat in the minutes that O’Neal missed and they won a close game vs the Lakers.

2. Bulls vs Knicks, 1994 

The Chicago Bulls did not have Michael Jordan in this matchup with the New York Knicks as he was in retirement at the time. Tensions were high between the two squads as the Knicks had beaten the Bulls in a seven-game series that was epic and anyone could have won. On this particular day, Scottie Pippen decided they weren’t losing to the Knicks.

Pippen lead the Bulls with 36 points, 16 rebounds, 3 assists, and five steals in the game. The game went to OT and he scored all seven of the Bulls’ point in that extra quarter. He put the bulls up 107-104 with under a minute remaining and wasn’t finished just yet. New York attempted two game-tying three-point attempts and both were blocked by Pippen. He wasn’t letting his team lose that game.

1. Cavaliers vs Warriors, 2016 

Cleveland and Golden State have a long-standing rivalry in the 2010’s as both teams met on multiple occasions in the NBA Finals. Their rematch on Christmas Day in 2016 had playoff buzz around it even though it really was just a regular season game. Both sides did not like each other and Cleveland had just ruined the Warriors 73-win season by coming back from being down 3-1 in the Finals and winning an epic game-seven.

The Warriors decided they were going to upgrade their roster and they did that by signing former league MVP Kevin Durant, who won his two championships with Golden State in 2017 and 2018. It went back and forth all game long and each side was trying to do whatever they could to win. Kyrie Irving came up clutch in the fourth hitting a number of much needed layups and a tough game-winning shot over Klay Thompson. The Warriors had 3,4 seconds to get up a shot, but KD stumbled the ball and Cleveland bested the Warriors once again.