Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs will face the Oklahoma City Thunder on Christmas Day. (Mark J. Terrill/AP)
The NBA finally caught a break in its annual Christmas battle with the NFL: Thursday’s holiday slate of football is marred by losing teams, while basketball’s quintuple-header on ABC and ESPN features a deep batch of title contenders.
Four of the six NFL teams set to play on Christmas have already been eliminated from the playoffs, including the big-name Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs. To make matters worse, the Chiefs will face the Denver Broncos in the prime-time time slot without three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes, who suffered a season-ending knee injury this month.