Boston Celtics: Ranking the 5 NBA Christmas Day matchups

The Houdini ranks the NBA’s Christmas Day slate, which includes five games all day long. Where does the Boston Celtics-Brooklyn Nets matchup rank?

For Boston Celtics fans that may have missed the announcement, your team will be featured in the juiciest matchup on Christmas Day: a 5 pm primetime home game against Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets.

My initial thoughts on the announcement are below:

"Fittingly enough, there will be no fans in the TD Garden for Boston’s 5pm X-Mas day matchup with the Nets. Granted, those fans would have a field day with Irving after he promised that he’d be back if Beantown’s faithful “would have him”. That statement reads as a convenient out now that “Uncle Drew” actually took his ball and went home.But it is appropriate that Irving will now only have to focus on an empty arena filled with banners he didn’t contribute to and a team he left behind that went two rounds further in the 2020 postseason than his own Nets did…not that Irving suited up for them when they needed him either."

I was a hot tamale for sure, but this matchup brings joy to my heart.

Was it the best matchup on NBA Christmas Day, though? Read on to see where the Houdini ranks the five holiday games:

5. New Orleans Pelicans at Miami Heat

For the second consecutive year, the NBA has decided to shoe-horn Zion Williamson and the Pelicans into a featured Christmas Day matchup.

Please stop doing this, NBA.

The Pels were a losing franchise with one of the best players in the league in Anthony Davis. Having Williamson doesn’t make them interesting all of a sudden, especially after the poor bubble showing they just had.

If anything, the Phoenix Suns should have gotten this spot via their 8-0 bubble run or the acquisition of Chris Paul.

4. Golden State Warriors at Milwaukee Bucks

This is a stacked Christmas Day schedule because the second-lowest ranked matchup is a game filled with such intrigue and potential wink-wink tampering that I am bursting at the seams just writing about it.

The Bucks may have one last Xmas with Giannis Antetokounmpo on the roster, especially after going all-in on the Jrue Holiday and failing to procure Bogdan Bogdanovic. That Milwaukee hosts the team that is most frequently linked to their superstar is maximum entertainment.

3. Dallas Mavericks at Los Angeles Lakers

Luka Doncic making his Christmas Day debut against LeBron James’ Lakers just days after hanging title #17 in the rafters is damn good television. It’d be even sweeter if the Slovenian sniper played Santa for the day and left a lump of coal in LeBron and the Lakers’ stockings.

2. Los Angeles Clippers at Denver Nuggets

In terms of actual rivalries, this takes the cake as the very best matchup of the Christmas Day slate. Nothing beats two teams that just met in the playoffs squaring off for the first time since during the holiday that brings people together…except for when one of those teams came back from a 3-1 deficit in the playoffs.

The Nuggets did just that against Los Angeles in the postseason, and now will host them in the high altitude of the Pepsi Center in front of no fans.

1. Brooklyn Nets at Boston Celtics

You knew this would be the Houdini’s opinion the minute the Christmas schedule was released. Kyrie Irving returning to the TD Garden to face the music with his new team? Sign us all up.