Mavericks-Timberwolves and Celtics-76ers highlight the NBA Christmas list

The NBA Christmas list is here.

The Athletic’s Shams Charania announced the league’s target date for December 25 on Thursday night, which should be another big day of basketball even as the NFL tries to make its way into the holiday with some games again this Christmas.

While we wait for the full schedule to be released, here are the five games taking place on Christmas Day this season.

The New York Knicks, as they always seem to do, will host a game on Christmas Day to kick off the holiday. The Knicks will host Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in the first game of the day at Madison Square Garden.

While the Spurs are coming off a fifth consecutive season in which they had a losing record and missed the playoffs, and the Knicks are fresh off their best season in over a decade, the battle between Wembanyama and the Knicks will certainly be entertaining.

The Dallas Mavericks, fresh off their first NBA Finals appearance since 2011, will host a game on Christmas Day this year. They will face the Minnesota Timberwolves at American Airlines Arena in a rematch of the most recent Western Conference Finals, which Luka Dončić and the Mavericks won 4-1 to reach the finals. The Timberwolves went 55-26 last season and earned their third straight playoff berth, which turned into their first trip to the conference finals in two decades.

Although Dončić and the Mavericks made easy work of the Timberwolves in last spring’s series, a Christmas Day battle between the two clubs should be great. And it will get a good look at the Mavericks with Klay Thompson, who signed with the club after a long stint with the Golden State Warriors.

While not the night game, this Eastern Conference matchup is the best game of the day.

The defending NBA champions will host the Philadelphia 76ers at TD Garden in what could easily be a preview of a thrilling playoff series a few months later. The 76ers have once again reloaded around Joel Embiid, adding Paul George to their roster after failing to advance past the first round of the playoffs earlier this spring. The Celtics will enter the season as favorites to repeat as champions as well, and it looks like they won’t miss a beat in their efforts to defend their title.

If there’s one game to watch on Christmas Day amid family celebrations, this is it.

It’s unclear how good either of these two clubs will be this season, but the Golden State Warriors will host LeBron James and his son, Bronny, in a late game on Christmas.

The Lakers reached the playoffs last year via a play-in game, but were eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in the opening round. The Golden State Warriors missed the playoffs entirely in a rare and difficult year for the franchise that has been so dominant under coach Steve Kerr.

This isn’t the best match of the day by any means. But seeing James face Stephen Curry is sure to be a fun game, regardless of where the two teams stack up in the West.

The last Western Conference game on Christmas could be hit or miss.

The Denver Nuggets, behind three-time MVP Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray, are easily one of the best teams in the Western Conference and are more than capable of making a second trip to the NBA Finals in three years in the spring. But the Suns, despite Devin Booker and Kevin Durant on their roster, appear to have struggled in recent years. They just lost in the first round of the playoffs and hired Mike Budenholzer to replace Frank Vogel as head coach – just a year after Vogel did the same with Monty Williams.

This game on paper seems to have the makings of a classic Christmas pageant. But with the way things are going in Phoenix lately, it could be just another average contest.