{"id":55580,"date":"2025-08-08T22:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T22:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/55580\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T22:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T22:56:07","slug":"durants-rockets-west-contenders-headline-nbas-opening-night-christmas-slate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/55580\/","title":{"rendered":"Durant\u2019s Rockets, West contenders headline NBA\u2019s opening night, Christmas slate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The NBA determined its marquee matchups for its opening night and Christmas Day slates, ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1953933022660604208\" rel=\"nofollow\">reported<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Opening night of the 2025-26 season features Kevin Durant making his Houston Rockets debut against Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder in a potential Western Conference finals preview. The Thunder are expected to receive their championship rings before the game.<\/p>\n<p>The Golden State Warriors will also visit the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 110-103 on opening night last season.<\/p>\n<p>There will be five Christmas Day games this season. The matchups include:<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Cleveland Cavaliers at New York Knicks<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 San Antonio Spurs at Oklahoma City Thunder<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Lakers<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Dallas Mavericks at Golden State Warriors<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Minnesota Timberwolves at Denver Nuggets<\/p>\n<p>The Cavaliers and Knicks are the only Eastern Conference teams playing on Christmas. Cleveland finished as the No. 1 seed in the East, while New York reached the Eastern Conference Final before losing in seven games to the Indiana Pacers.<\/p>\n<p>The Pacers and the Boston Celtics are notable omissions, likely due to the Achilles injuries suffered by Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile in the Western Conference, there is no shortage of star power. Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves take on Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. Both teams are familiar to the holiday grind after playing on Christmas in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Cooper Flagg, the 2025 No. 1-overall pick, will make his Christmas debut when the Mavs face Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Curry scored a game-high 38 points in a 115-113 loss to the Lakers last Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>Victor Wembanyama\u2019s rookie season may end up being the only year that doesn\u2019t include the French phenom in the holiday action. The seven-foot-three centre will lead his San Antonio Spurs against the defending champion Thunder. Wembanyama finished with 42 points, 18 rebounds, and four blocks in a 117-114 loss to the Knicks last Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA determined its marquee matchups for its opening night and Christmas Day slates, ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania reported&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-55580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}