The NBA's Opening Night And Christmas Day Slate Are Out And For Some Reason They've Decided To Start The Season In The Middle Of The Afternoon

While we all struggle to make it through the dog days of the NBA dead period, it doesn't take much to get the blood flowing. Frankly, given that I am so basketball-starved, all it takes is any sort of news or update about the new season to give me a raging Porzingis in my pants and boy oh boy did the NBA come through for me with that this morning. Thanks to LeBron finally making his decision as to where he would be taking his talents next, the NBA was allowed to build the schedule, which meant it wasn't going to be long before we got the news of Opening Night and Christmas Day matchups.

Today is that day. Let's start with Opening Night

I'm sorry, does that say in the afternoon? Upon further research, DET/BOS will tip off at 3pm???

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Everyone knows the best way to get eyeballs on your new season is to not only include two teams that both blew 3-1 leads and didn't even make the ECF, but also have it kick off while the majority of people are in the middle of their workday! Look, does it impact me? No, I'll be there no matter what because I have a job that allows me the opportunity to watch sports in the middle of the day. Unfortunately, that is NOT how the majority of people live. I know baseball also does this, but to me, Opening Night is supposed to be a primetime event, not something that starts in the middle of the day. I get the appeal of having a little appetizer ahead of the night slate, but this feels like trying to cram too much into one night. I get it, Jayson Tatum and the Celtics move the needle, but they could have easily played this game the following night.

Also, it's a little disrespectful to ya know, the NBA Champions. Call me old-fashioned if you want, but if an Eastern Conference team wins the Larry O'Brien trophy (which ya know, the Knicks did), they should be the ones to kick off the NBA season in the first game. Sneaking in a quick BOS/DET game sort of takes the wind out of the sails a little bit, and while as a hater I can appreciate that, I would have been pretty annoyed had this happened in 2024. Opening Night is about the banner being raised and the Champs being celebrated, so to me this just feels a little weird. Obviously, if the Champ was in the West that would be the second game, but I've always felt Opening Night should be kept to 2 games total. 

In terms of the other matchups? No brainers. Any other choice other than PHI/NYK and OKC/SA would have been a disaster. Those are the matchups people want to see, those were 3 of the 4 best teams last year and then the new Sixers Superteam. It's cool that the Knicks get to raise their banner in LeBron & Co's face, and in the late night game I don't think anyone is complaining about another Thunder/Spurs battle given how awesome every one of their games was last year. So outside of that weird early afternoon game, good job Adam.

How about Christmas?

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Like I said, Jayson Tatum moves the needle. Last year the NBA kept the Celts out of the Christmas Day slate for the first time in 10 years because they thought the team would be dogshit. As you can see, they did not make that mistake again this year. 

Going up and down the list, I can't lie, I like almost all of these matchups. I thought maybe this would be where we could get PHI/BOS, but BOS/MIA works as well. A Finals rematch in the early game, LeBron vs his old team/Luka makes sense, and another battle between MIN/OKC will never get a complaint out of me. 

My issue? DEN/GS. I get it, this is Steph Curry's last few years and we should all savor whatever moments we have left, but this game has the potential to stink out loud, mostly because by Christmas, the Warriors could very well be cooked. Last year on that date, the Warriors were 16-15 and in 8th in the West. Would anyone be shocked if that was the case (or worse) this year? I get Steph vs Jokic, but that doesn't quite hit the same for me in 2026. This is the problem with Steph still being on GS. We all want to watch him as much as possible, but that means being forced to watch the Warriors who will most likely stink and be out of playoff contention all because he refuses to turn his key and demand a trade. 

If the idea is to be able to see the living legends, why not go with KD and the Rockets in that spot? That's a team that should be competitive this year to the point where the game should actually matter. I'd much rather watch the Rockets than this version of the Warriors if we're being honest, even knowing that Steph is must watch when he's on a heater. Last time I checked, that KD fella is pretty good too. It's not a huge deal and overall the slate is solid, I'm just over the Warriors experience at this point. 

All in all? Outside of some minor complaints, I think the NBA schedule makers did an OK job here. Granted, once we get to October I'm going to be so excited that basketball is back that it doesn't really matter who is on my TV, but for those that need big time matchups to get excited about the season, I'd say these fit the bill. 

We're inching closer and closer to all being right with the world again and basketball being back in our lives every night. Just a few more months to go

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