{"id":876071,"date":"2026-08-29T17:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T17:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/876071\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T17:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T17:48:11","slug":"jalen-brunsons-knicks-have-the-christmas-game-they-wanted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/876071\/","title":{"rendered":"Jalen Brunson&#8217;s Knicks have the Christmas game they wanted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/empiresportsmedia.com\/category\/new-york-knicks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Knicks<\/a> will host San Antonio at noon on Christmas Day, giving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/player\/1628973\/jalen-brunson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Jalen Brunson<\/a> and company a Finals rematch on the league\u2019s loudest regular-season stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The game will be New York\u2019s 59th Christmas Day appearance and its 51st at home. It is a big number, but the matchup is what makes this one worth circling. The Spurs pushed the Knicks through a Finals series last spring, and they will get two regular-season meetings in 2026-27.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Christmas is the first one. The second comes March 7 in San Antonio. That gives both teams a chance to add another chapter to a matchup that already has some edge behind it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Knicks beat Cleveland 126-124 on Christmas last season, with Brunson scoring 34 points. The assignment changes this year. Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs bring size, length and recent Finals history into the Garden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I would take a real basketball matchup over a holiday novelty every time. Knicks-Spurs has enough from June to make people care before the opening tip.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/body-reuters-159.jpg\" alt=\"Knicks players defend Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama in the NBA Finals\" class=\"wp-image-428607\"  \/>Jun. 13, 2026: Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama reaches for a rebound against the Knicks during Game 5 of the NBA Finals in San Antonio. Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect.<\/p>\n<p>Knicks and Spurs are getting a real Christmas spotlight<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The NBA could have put these teams together in January and moved on. It picked Christmas because the game sells itself. New York gets the home crowd, San Antonio gets a national test, and both sides get a reminder that the road back to June will not be simple.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brunson will be central to every bit of it. The Spurs know exactly how much pressure he can put on a defense when the game tightens. The Knicks know Wembanyama can erase a possession without even leaving his feet.<\/p>\n<p>The Knicks have a date to remember<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Christmas games do not decide a season, but people remember them. This one has a real chance to stay in the conversation through the winter because it comes with a Finals backdrop and two teams that expect to be playing deep into spring again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is the kind of holiday game the Knicks should want. No gimmick, no soft opponent, just another reason for the Garden to be at full volume.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img alt=\"avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_1384.jpg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-70 photo\" height=\"70\" width=\"70\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knicks will host San Antonio at noon on Christmas Day, giving Jalen Brunson and company a Finals&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-876071","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\/876071","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=876071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}