Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers will close out Christmas Day with a game against the NuggetsNBAE/GETTY IMAGES
Christmas Day again will "feature the NBA's marquee games to get the season jump-started," with Mavericks-Lakers highlighting a "blockbuster slate of tentative holiday games," according to sources cited by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com. Pelicans F Zion Williamson is "slated to make his Christmas debut" when the team kicks off the holiday schedule with a visit to Miami to play the Heat. Warriors G Stephen Curry then "makes his return to the Christmas stage" for Warriors-Bucks. The Nets' "star tandem" of F Kevin Durant and G Kyrie Irving also is "in line to make its Christmas Day debut" with a game against the Celtics. The Clippers "will close out the night" in Denver in a matchup with the Nuggets (ESPN.com, 12/1). In California, Kyle Goon writes the Christmas Day games are the "first concrete games so far of a reduced 72-game regular-season schedule that is still being arranged behind the scenes" (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 12/2).
INSIDE INFO: In San Jose, Michael Nowels writes ESPN and partner ABC traditionally broadcast a "majority of the NBA's games on Christmas Day, so it's no surprise the Worldwide Leader was involved in leaking the schedule for one of the league's premier days" (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 12/2).
