Just with every holiday or event after March of 2020, Christmas is going to feel a lot different this year sure, there may be Christmas trees, gifts, eggnog, opening presents and ham. The one thing that won’t change is the NBA Christmas Day schedule.
The league has featured some of the season’s biggest games on the NBA game schedule so that fans can enjoy them on network television. The NBA has a partnership with ABC and ESPN. And that’s been the case for decades now.
NBA Christmas TV schedule
So even though friends and family won’t be coming over, the NBA will continue some form of tradition with have five big match ups on their season schedule — so we can have that in 2020, at least. And the NBA knew we wanted X-Mas games as their gift to us fans. Here is the television schedule for NBA Basketball on Friday, December 25, 2020. The game times are listed in Eastern Times.
Time (ET) | Home | Away | TV Channel |
---|---|---|---|
Noon | Miami Heat | New Orleans Pelicans | ESPN |
2:30PM | Milwaukee Bucks | Golden State Warriors | ABC |
5:00PM | Boston Celtics | Brooklyn Nets | ABC |
8:00PM | Los Angeles Lakers | Dallas Mavericks | ABC/ESPN |
10:30 PM | Denver Nuggets | LA Clippers | ESPN |
The X-Mas Match Ups for 2020
As with the last several season, there are five Christmas day games. The first game on the schedule pits Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans visiting Jimmy Butler and last season’s surprise Finals team Miami Heat. The second game brings together two two-time league MVPs in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Stephen Curry. The former is looking to lead his Milwaukee Bucks to the Finals and latter is making a return to the game after missing most of Golden States’ schedule last season. That game will be on ABC.
The third game is one of the headliner games with the return of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in the much-anticipated Brooklyn Nets scheduled to take on the Boston Celtics with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
The fourth game is the biggest game on the schedule with a key 8PM start time. This features the best player in the league LeBron James and his defending champion Los Angeles Lakers taking on his heir apparent in 21-year old Luka Doncic and his Dallas Mavericks. This will be on both ABC and ESPN.
The last game on the docket is a rematch of the Western Conference semi-finals last season when the Denver Nuggets (schedule) upset the Los Angeles Clippers in a 3-1 comeback. That game will be shown on ESPN at 10:30 PM EST.