Christmas Wishes: Who Could Knicks Play on Dec. 25?

The New York Knicks' resurgence will likely have them working on Christmas Day again. Who could they face on the hallowed hardwood holiday?

In the digital age, Christmas shopping starts earlier than ever. Such transactions are hardly different on the hardwood. 

With the storms of NBA free agency have pacified, the eyes of the basketball-obsessed now turn to the release of the 2023-24 regular season schedule. The most talked about date on the ledger in each and every season is undoubtedly Christmas Day, as the Association has staged holiday hoops annually since its second season in 1947. While the NBA has no permanent residents on the holiday schedule (unlike the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving), the New York Knicks are perhaps the closest thing to a staple. 

No team has played on Christmas more than the Knicks, whose games have provided background noise for present-openings on 55 occasions. Coming off a surprisingly successful 2022-23 campaign, which saw them win 47 games and their first playoff series in a decade, it stands to reason that the Knicks will get another invite.

Much like last season, it'd perhaps be wise to assume that the Knicks get one of the early slots on Christmas, if not the 12 p.m. ET tip-off again: as the NFL continues its Yuletide invasion (staging three games to counter the NBA), the Knicks are poised to share Christmas with the New York Giants, who will face the hated Philadelphia Eagles at 4:30 p.m. ET. This mirrors the Knicks' situation from last Christmas, when they opened the NBA's five-game slate against the Philadelphia 76ers.

With no set date for the schedule release, speculation will reign over who the Knicks will face. In the meantime, All Knicks has several prominent candidates for the celebrations ...

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Boston Celtics

After reaching a fever pitch at the start of the current century, the New York-Boston rivalry has drastically simmered down: the Yankees and Red Sox are fighting to avoid last place in the AL East while the Rangers and Bruins haven't timed their respective recent playoff runs well. There's hope that the Jets can finally turn the tide against the New England Patriots with Aaron Rodgers in tow, but the only acceptable proof of a momentum-shifter will come on the scoreboard.

The Knicks' meandering mediocrity ... or worse ... had rendered their rivalry with the Celtics irrelevant but some of the team's finest moments in recent memory have against that hated shade of green. RJ Barrett's nationally-televised buzzer-beater at MSG was a silver lining during the woebegone 2021-22 season while Immanuel Quickley's 38-point showing in Beantown was part of a 3-1 tally against the Celtics last season. 

The Knicks were two wins away from battling Boston for an NBA Finals ticket but each side lost to the Miami Heat. It'd hardly be a surprise to see the NBA place one of its favorite matchups on one of its favorite dates: New York and Boston have met eight times on Christmas, most recently in 2016 (the Celtics lead 5-3).

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Cleveland Cavaliers

If Christmas is all about going home for the holidays, there may be no better time for Donovan Mitchell to be re-introduced to the Empire State.

The Knicks' 2022-23 season came full circle during the NBA playoffs: a summer of speculation surrounding Donovan Mitchell gave way to a spring of jubilation. Mitchell was the victim, not the victor, as the Knicks disposed of him and his new bandmates in Cleveland in a five-game first-round set that served as New York's first postseason win since 2013.

One summer later, the Mitchell floodgates threaten to re-open with the former Utah All-Star reportedly reluctant to ink a long-term deal with the Cavs. The Knicks' restraint (a theme that carries on during this offseason) should be rewarded and recognized, but anyone associated with New York basketball is going to wonder about Mitchell's long-term future. A holiday get-together should only strengthen the speculation.

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Dallas Mavericks

The unexpected rivalry between Manhattan and North Texas has been kept well-fed by the yearly pair between the Giants and Cowboys. Their basketball brothers seem intent on keep the hate alive.

Jalen Brunson's tragically non-existent MVP case could've been made through the Mavericks' struggles without his services, to the point they've brought in Kyrie Irving to step into his sneakers. Little more needs to be said about Brunson's transfer to the Knicks, though Mavericks management has certainly done its share of talking about New York's negotiations. Mark Cuban and Co. are hardly satisfied with the Knicks' punishment of a second-round pick for tampering with Brunson's free agency period, to the point where they rejected a shot at the Western Conference Play-In Tournament to deny the Knicks a transferring first-round draft pick, the final leg of the Kristaps Porzingis trade. 

Seeing as the networks often love to play on Christmas' tidings of comfort and joy by staging rivalries in the NBA slots, placing the Mavericks in the Knicks' slot would be an intriguing combo, especially if it's the meeting staged in Dallas: Brunson missed last year's get-together in the Lone Star State due to injury and could only watch as former teammate Luka Doncic put in 60 points en route to an overtime victory.

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Miami Heat

Perhaps surprisingly, the Knicks and Heat never did battle on Christmas during the height of their hatred at the turn of the century, instead doing battle in 2009, the final year before the LeBron James/Dwyane Wade/Chris Bosh era.

There's ample opportunity to make up for lost time: the Knicks and Heat reignited their feisty relationship last season. Eyes will immediately turn to Miami's six-game conference semifinal victory in the playoffs en route to the NBA Finals, but the two sides played a thrilling quartet decided by a combined 20 points (the Knicks prevailing 3-1). Miami's case for inclusion (already strong as a defending finalist) only strengthens with their alleged pursuit of current Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard.

One thing that could work against the idea of a Knicks-Heat matchup on Christmas is the fact that they'll already face each other early on as part of the Association's newly-installed In-Season Tournament. But the idea of resurrecting the rivalry, especially in the early slot (where the NFL is placing the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs) might make it well-worth exhausting the Manhattan-South Beach matchups early.

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San Antonio Spurs

A team often has earn to right to play on Christmas: even the Knicks, often reliable ratings drawers no matter how far they sink, were removed from the holiday slate for two years (2019-20) until they made their way back onto the Eastern Conference playoff bracket.

Having said that, many casual sports fans often see Christmas Day as the unofficial start to the NBA season and the holiday is a prime opportunity to showcase new and upcoming talents, especially supposedly generational stars like Victor Wembanyama. There's historical precedent for Wembanyama's downtrodden Spurs to be granted a Christmas privilege ahead of schedule: his hype has been compared to that of LeBron James and his Cavaliers appeared on the slate upon his arrival in 2003. Putting the Spurs in an early slot the Knicks are probably destined to receive is a relatively risk-free posting for the Association if they wished to go that route. 

Though the Knicks and Spurs are far from natural rivals, this season presents an intriguing occasion for the matchup: 2024 will mark the 25th anniversary of the 1999 NBA Finals, which saw the Spurs earn the first of five championships.

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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