People within NBA circles like to call the All-Star Weekend a showcase for the league, where the best of the sport’s past, present, and future come together and celebrate what makes it the best sport in the world.
It is not successful in that regard.
The game is a joke. The showcase events are (mostly) disappointing. The effort is, um, lacking.
The NBA’s true showcase happens every Dec. 25, where 10 teams square off in five consecutive basketball games spread over nearly 13 hours. Christmas Day is the true barometer for the health of the league and why people should continue paying attention.
Did this year’s Christmas slate deliver on those expectations? Mostly yes. It was a fantastic stretch of games, full of drama and intrigue and buzzer-beaters and superstars and storylines and, well, whatever the Nuggets’ defense was doing. But the day still showed some of the flaws in how the NBA continues to position itself and how difficult it is for a league of this size to pivot and adjust.
The Christmas Day slate often turns into the NBA’s version of the Oscars conversation, where it’s less about who got nominated and instead turns into a discussion of who got “snubbed.” Giannis Antetokounmpo is one of the league’s signature stars, and his team was nowhere to be found. Also, four of the five-best teams by winning percentage were absent from the festivities. Oklahoma City, Houston, Memphis, and Cleveland were excluded for either market- or star-based reasons, and there is no mechanism in place to figure out how to get these younger, surprising (in the case of Houston especially), successful squads in front of the most casual audiences the NBA generates until the Finals.
But there are only 10 slots. It speaks to the strength of the league that there are more than a dozen deserving entries into the Christmas Day conversation. This is one of those “good problems.”
The day started with an absolute barnburner between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs in Madison Square Garden. The Spurs earned a spot among the 10 due solely to Victor Wembanyama, and the 20-year-old delivered on the biggest non-Olympic stage he’s seen, pouring in 42 points along with 18 boards, four blocks, and six threes. We’re all just biding time until it’s Victor’s league. But it wasn’t quite enough to topple the Knicks, who survived a rough shooting night from Jalen Brunson and predictable foul trouble from Karl-Anthony Towns because Mikal Bridges played the best game of his life. After shaking off a slow start to his season, Bridges has fully acclimated to what the Knicks need him to do. He racked up 41 points on 17-25 shooting and looked like freakin’ prime Kevin Durant in the fourth quarter. What a ballgame.
Game two looked like it was going to be the dud (Christmas Day always has at least one) when the Minnesota Timberwolves charged to a big halftime lead and Luka Doncic departed with a calf injury that may be more serious than it initially appeared. But Kyrie Irving turned the fourth quarter into a personal highlight reel and almost singlehandedly completed one of the most unlikely fourth-quarter comebacks you’ll ever see. The T-Wolves held on – barely – in a win that felt more like a loss for this funky, oddly shaped roster. The vibes are all the way off in Minnesota. The financially motivated Towns trade has worked out worse than even the most pessimistic observer could have expected.
Game three looked like the easiest one to predict on paper (defending champs losing two of their last three, returning to its home court in need of a win), but that’s why they play the games. I’m not sure if the 76ers are “back” in the way the Bucks are “back” after winning the NBA Cup, but this is a win this squad desperately needed to prove this season isn’t a lost cause. The Sixers survived tremendous games from Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Jaylen Brown to eek out a 118-114 win in Boston, thanks in large part to huge plays from Tyrese Maxey (that game-clinching layup? Chef’s kiss) and Joel Embiid, who still can’t move or dribble very well, but is seemingly an even better shooter now than he was at his MVP peak. Embiid had his best three-point shooting outing (4-5) and continued his truly incredible run at the foul line. Did you know Embiid has only missed three of his 62 free-throw attempts this year? Even if his defense/ball-handling is a liability at the end of games, his foul shooting is lethal. It’s not panic time in Boston yet, but it’s perhaps a bit concerning that this seemingly loaded squad can’t survive a bad Payton Pritchard night (0-8 from deep).
Heading into game four, I had the same amount of enthusiasm as I have for an unnecessary legacy sequel. They made another Beetlejuice because there was money to be made. The Lakers and Warriors are here because they had to be here. Steph. LeBron. Nothing really at stake. No title aspirations for either team. But if you get these guys the right director (or the right play-by-play man) and the right lighting, it can seem like 2016 again. And unlike most unnecessary legacy sequels, this game delivered the goods – and then some. Curry was out of his mind in this one. The Lakers looked like they would cruise to an easy 10-point win until Curry buried that second-chance three with just under three minutes to go. This is when laser beams started shooting out of his eyes. LeBron would answer, Steph would answer even louder (like that corner three Steph hit over LeBron where it looked like Steph shot it sidearm). Then LeBron would block a shot that made him look 25 again, and then Steph would hit a three from 100 feet away that made Mike Breen scream “Bang! BANG!” Goosebumps. And then Austin Reeves – who was a teenager when most of these epic Steph/LeBron battles took place – sealed the game with an aggressive left-to-right move. Will this game matter in the grand scheme of things? No. Was it the best game of the night? Heck yes.
It’s good that Warriors/Lakers delivered, because Suns/Nuggets was a bit of a snoozefest. Phoenix took a lead early, Denver would claw back but never really threaten, and that was that. Truly abysmal effort defensively from the Nuggets in this one. The only reason the Suns didn’t score 140 was because they missed a bunch of uncontested threes. The less said about this one, the better. No big deal – most people were asleep for the majority of this one, anyway.
All told, Christmas Day delivered the goods this year – 3.5 of the five games exceeded expectations. Wemby, Bridges, Kyrie, Maxey, Embiid (at the line), Tatum, Steph, LeBron, Reeves, Jokic, Durant … wow. The league is doing fine.
