Merry Christmas everyone! From our extended SneakerReporter family to yours, we wish you happy, happy holidays! It’s been a long, rough year, but if you are able to just be with family and friends during this wondrous time, that’s a blessing in itself. And per tradition on Christmas day, we have more NBA Basketball just a little under an hour away! Five games, and a preview of each of them, are coming down the chimney for viewing and reading pleasure, so go and grab your favorite Yuletide beverage, kick back, and get ready for game one of our NBA quintuple-header choc’ full o’ holiday action!
The third game on the schedule: the 1-0 Brooklyn Nets, fresh off a home beatdown handed to the Golden State Warriors, start their first road trip of the season by visiting ol’ Beantown as Kyrie Irving makes his anticipated return to Boston’s TD Garden in a 5:00 p.m. ET showdown on ABC.
Boston is too coming off one of the most impressive outings of the Jayson Tatum – Jaylen Brown era: a 120-119 thriller that saw Boston avoid overtime, thanks to a bricked second free throw by reigning 2-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo with 0.4 seconds left. Jayson Tatum’s last-second heroics and 30 points off 12-of-28 shooting guaranteed them starting on the winning track against conference rival Milwaukee, but the gradual rise of Jaylen Brown, who scored 33 points off 13-of-24 shooting in the win against the Bucks, is proving a lot of his believers that spoke highly of him and how he should’ve been announced as an Eastern All-Star last year with such a strong opening day performance.
And on that topic, there’s been some change for the Celtics, more specifically on their bench. New veteran pickup Jeff Teague (19 points off 7-15 shooting and a perfect 4-for-4 from deep) was the tenured marksman that resembled his younger Atlanta self, but big man depth was the biggest question mark on their list of necessary improvements. That’ll be something to monitor today since they’ll lose some of it. Robert Williams has contracted an illness and won’t be active for this one, so Daniel Theis and Grant Williams will have to compensate and take his workload of guarding DeAndre Jordan and Jarrett Allen.
As for the wings, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown face their hardest defensive matchup yet: the Durantula, Kevin Durant. But for KD, guarding the Boston duo isn’t as simple as thought. Whatever percentage Durant was at during their win against the Warriors, he looked spry and shifty as if his injury never happened. And for Kyrie, who was sidelined the rest of the year with shoulder issues last season, is looking to make a statement against the team that let him walk to Brooklyn after a disastrous divorce following the 2019 playoff series against the Bucks.
So for what is perhaps the most controversial and compelling game of the season so far, it should go well with your family’s Christmas dinner (y’know, if you like some drama with your mashed potatoes). Kick back and enjoy!
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