The NBA schedule is heading toward 2014 and on December 25 the league will continue its Christmas Day tradition with five games on the schedule and things will kick off with the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets at 12 noon and then continues with Oklahoma City, the New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Clippers as well as the Golden State Warriors and all those games have the potential to be exciting.
The schedule has some classic and popular teams playing, but four of the 10 teams playing have .500 records or worse than that and while teams like the Knicks and Bulls are beloved by many, they haven't played so great this season and of course Derrick Rose will be missing from the festivities as well. All the games will be streaming online from their respective channels, with the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets game starting up at 12 pm noon and that game will be streaming from the WatchESPN website and has two teams looking to get back on track at under .500 and two teams dealing with significant injuries.
The Bulls have lost Rose for the season most likely after he injured his knee again and the Nets have been banged up as well with a number of players, including Deron Williams and Paul Pierce and on top of that the team also lost Robin Lopez for the entire season. The Nets are paying a ridiculous amount in luxury tax this season and things have not been working out great and now they will be in the spotlight against the Bulls. The next game on the schedule has the Oklahoma City Thunder and the New York Knicks playing and with Carmelo Anthony banging up his ankle this past weekend, there is a chance he could miss the game and that would be another blow for the Knicks, who have been struggling all season.
The Knicks and Thunder will play at 2:30 pm and the game is on ABC and the WatchABC website and has some of the top players in the league going at it in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and the Knicks really can't afford to drop another game at home at this point and another loss could continue their season into a tailspin. The game will be an important one for Mike Woodson and the Knicks really would like to get back on track. Westbrook has been playing very well this season while coming back from an injury and he is averaging a solid 23 points and seven assists over his past five games and that will be another mess for the Knicks to deal with at 8-18.
The Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers will be playing at 5:00 pm on ABC from the Staples Center and the game will be missing some star power in Kobe Bryant. The Lakers have been solid to start the season while dealing with injury issues and now they will go up against LeBron James and the defending champion Heat. The Lakers recently signed Kendall Marshall to help with their injuries to Steve Nash and Steve Blake and he will be a serviceable option, but he is not Kobe Bryant and the Heat likely will win big. Miami comes in ranked sixth in the league in scoring and scoring defense with over 104 points per game and they also are 21-6 on the season to have one of the best records in the league and they next play against the Sacramento Kings on Friday.
The last two games have the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs in an All-Texas game and the Golden State Warriors taking on the LA Clippers in a California clash. Those games will be at 8 pm for the Rockets and Spurs on ESPN, while the Clips and Warriors play at 10:30 pm on ESPN.