Despite Roger Goodell’s best efforts, Christmas Day once again belonged to the NBA this year. A marquee five-game showcase more than lived up to the hype, with each game dishing something to chew on for hoops revelers. In honor of the holiday festivities, The Ringer’s NBA team (briefly) put down the dessert to give you one take from each Christmas game. From Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs’ shell-shocking of the Thunder to Nikola Jokic’s mind-boggling master class of a triple-double, let’s dive in.
The Spurs just gave the Thunder a 7-foot-4 reality check.
Michael Pina: A few weeks ago, I wrote this piece in which I wondered whether the Oklahoma City Thunder were an inevitable force of nature that is virtually guaranteed to win a second straight championship. My TL;DR conclusion: We should probably pump the brakes. I believe that the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets are good enough to win it all, and I said: “I also think that the San Antonio Spurs (with a healthy Victor Wembanyama) can give OKC legitimate fits much sooner rather than later.”
Since then, the Spurs have gone 3-0 against a team that’s now 26-2 against the rest of the league. In all three wins—including Thursday’s 117-102 Christmas Day beatdown—Wembanyama has come off the bench with a minutes restriction. In all three wins, San Antonio has looked comfortable, spry, and completely unafraid against the Thunder defense, which has suffocated every other team.
It’s obviously too soon to crown a young core that has never even been to the postseason, but the Spurs are clearly built to defeat the Thunder in a playoff series this year. It’s honestly remarkable. In the span of a week, pundits who wondered whether Oklahoma City could win 75 games must now consider the fact that it may not even enter the playoffs with the no. 1 seed. (San Antonio is currently two games back in the loss column.) That doesn’t mean OKC shouldn’t be considered the favorite, but the Spurs are an absolute monster in their own right.
When you watch Stephon Castle get into the paint at will while successfully harassing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the other end, or you see Wemby wall off the rim for eight straight minutes and then drill a couple of movement 3s, or you remember that De’Aaron Fox is a game-breaking heat check who isn’t scared of anyone or anything, a Finals run doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility.
What happened on Christmas was not a fluke. It was a slap-in-the-face reality check for anyone who doesn’t think that the Spurs are already prepared to win it all this year. Age is nothing but a number.
Nikola Jokic is the new Santa.
Matt Dollinger: I’m sorry to peel back the curtain like this, but as a community, sportswriters are facing an existential crisis. Sure, artificial intelligence is coming and will absolutely wipe us all out one day, but I’m actually talking about more pressing matters. The walls are closing in on this one. It’s officially time to panic. I’ll just admit it. We’re desperately and hopelessly running out of cool things to say about Nikola Jokic.
I mean, come on. A 56-point triple-double in an overtime win on Christmas Day against arguably the Denver Nuggets’ biggest nemesis? Setting the NBA record with 18 points scored in overtime? Chipping in with 16 rebounds and 15 assists just for shits and giggles? Staring down a 15-point deficit in the final six minutes, then coming back in overtime again? The third-most points ever on Christmas Day? What the hell. People, this is a serious problem. He’s won three of the last five MVP awards, and half of our staff would argue that he deserved all five. In the past two years, we’ve run headlines like: “The Genius of Jokic,” “Nikola Jokic Was Already the Best Basketball Player Alive. Somehow, He’s Even Better Now.,” and “The NBA Still Hasn’t Found an Answer for Nikola Jokic.” He’s been no. 1 on our NBA, Ranked project for years. Are you starting to see what I’m talking about? The bar for saying something impressive about this guy has become impossibly high.
The good news is that Jokic is the last person who could possibly care. He’s not basking in the glory of a 56-point triple-double; he’s likely worried that his Nuggets needed overtime to thwart the Timberwolves. There's simply no denying that Jokic is the best player in the league at this point; the question is whether his supporting cast is good enough for him to win a second title. With Cam Johnson out four to six weeks, things will be tight for Denver leading up to the trade deadline. Is there a win-now move it can make to add a splash of depth? The Thunder and Spurs are mighty foes, but the Nuggets front office knows what everyone else in the league does, too: With Jokic, all things are possible.
The Lakers’ defensive heart shrank three sizes on Christmas.
Danny Chau: When did the Rockets’ 119-96 drubbing of the Lakers on Christmas night start to feel like a cruel time loop? Was it on Amen Thompson’s fourth layup attempt, with more than six minutes left in the first quarter? Or maybe it was on his 10th, with 5:08 remaining in the third, when he split both Luka Doncic and Deandre Ayton for a tough left-handed finish. Thompson had a game-high 19 field goal attempts, with 13 of them coming around the rim. Amen moves unlike just about any player in basketball history (other than his twin brother), but the way he knifed through the Lakers defense, you’d be forgiven for thinking that a demigod had descended upon us.
The Lakers entered their Christmas-night matchup against the Rockets with the sixth-best win percentage in the league, but they have almost no recourse when they aren’t able to overwhelm teams with their offensive efficiency. (Which might be a more difficult ask in the coming weeks, with Austin Reaves apparently reaggravating a left calf injury that had sidelined him for the three previous games in December.)
The Rockets’ assembly line of hyper-athletic replicant wings was perhaps the worst matchup for the Lakers in a high-profile national showcase. L.A.’s starting lineup is hopeless at the point of attack, every player on the floor a step slow to contain penetration for a concerning number of reasons—a surplus in age, a deficit in foot speed, an absence of focus and effort. From that area of clear vulnerability, there was a trickle-down effect that put Houston in the driver’s seat all night. The Rockets, already proving to be one of the best offensive rebounding teams ever, had just one fewer second-chance opportunity (17) than the Lakers’ total number of defensive boards (18)—a feat that Houston has matched or surpassed in three other games this season.
It was a perfect storm of factors that accentuated all of Houston’s strengths and underlined all of L.A.’s weaknesses. The Lakers’ 10 losses this season have come by an average of 18.6 points. Los Angeles may not have the climate or topography to lead to lake-effect snow, but the Lakers Effect on opposing offenses has been just as torrential.
Put some respect on the Knicks’ name.
Howard Beck: Sometime last spring—after we’d all watched in horror as various superstars blew out their Achilles tendons, scrambling the power structure of the Eastern Conference—a consensus formed about the following season. The East would be (say it with me now) … wide open.
No Tyrese Haliburton to lead the Indiana Pacers back to the Finals. No Jayson Tatum to anchor the perennial contender in Boston. Control of the East would fall to Cleveland or New York, or perhaps to the budding powers in Detroit, Orlando, or Atlanta. Optimists could squint and envision a resurgence in Milwaukee or even [gasp] in Philadelphia. Because, you see, the East was wide open.
But two months into the regular season, that premise might need a reassessment. Because the Knicks are fast emerging as the preeminent team of the NBA’s junior varsity division—a notion underscored by their methodical come-from-behind 126-124 victory over the Cavaliers on Thursday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. After a sluggish start, the Knicks wiped out a 17-point deficit and recorded the third-biggest Christmas comeback in the play-by-play era.
The Knicks are now 2-0 against their presumed rivals. They’ve won 13 of their past 16 games, including two victories over the Magic, two against the upstart Toronto Raptors, and one against the gritty Miami Heat. Along the way (and for what it’s worth), New York also won the NBA Cup with a spirited takedown of Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs, who suddenly look like the most dangerous team in the league.
Is there a better clutch player right now than Jalen Brunson, who put up 13 points in the Knicks’ fourth-quarter surge on Thursday? Is there a better perimeter defender than OG Anunoby? Or a better defensive tandem than Anunoby and Mikal Bridges? Or a better glue guy and hustle player than Josh Hart? Heck, under new head coach Mike Brown, the Knicks even have a bench now, led on Thursday by second-year guard (and soon-to-be New York folk hero) Tyler Kolek, who scored 11 points in the fourth.
Detroit has the East’s best record at the moment (24-6), but New York has more proven talent and playoff experience. The Knicks are more seasoned than the Magic, Hawks, and Raptors; more well rounded than the Sixers, Bucks, and Heat; deeper than the Tatum-less Celtics; and, frankly, much tougher than the Cavaliers, who continue to shrink when the lights are brightest.
There’s a lot of season left, of course. The Pistons could trade for a veteran star. Tatum could return ahead of schedule. The Magic could get healthy. Maybe the playoffs will indeed give us a wide-open race. But as of today? It’s the Knicks’ conference to lose.
This is why the Mavericks can’t have nice things.
Isaac Levy-Rubinett: The Warriors’ 126-116 rout of the Mavericks on Christmas was a tale of two teams: an old squad that knows exactly who it is, making its 13th straight Christmas Day appearance, against a youngish team that is starting to find itself—or had been starting to find itself, until Anthony Davis left the game in the second quarter due to a groin strain. Adding extra pain: AD’s injury comes exactly one year after Luka Doncic strained his calf in what ended up being his final game with the Mavericks. Nobody needs another rehashing of everything that has befallen the Mavs since, but Thursday’s setback is a fresh wound for a team that had been trending in the right direction.
Davis and Cooper Flagg have developed some promising frontcourt chemistry, and starting a more traditional point guard in Ryan Nembhard has organized the Mavs offense and brought out the best in Flagg. In his last 12 games, the no. 1 pick has averaged 25 points, six rebounds, and four assists, right in line with what he did against Golden State. Flagg attacked the Warriors relentlessly, scoring nine buckets inside the paint and making an impressive array of strong and creative finishes around the rim. He looked comfortable and at home in the Christmas Day spotlight, which is really all that matters in the long term for the Mavs. But AD's health continues to cloud the picture heading into 2026, as the NBA trade deadline approaches. How much trade value does Davis have? And if the answer isn't much and AD can't stay on the floor, what avenue do the Mavs have to build a more talented team around their surging rookie?
