OKC Thunder: TI writing team dives in with a holiday roundtable
Question 3:
If you could add two teams to the NBA Christmas Day schedule who would they be?
Stephen Dolan: Toronto. And because it’s so absurd that they aren’t playing, Toronto again.
Justin Cooper: With the season the Raptors are having, it’s a shame they’re not taking the court on Christmas day. At the risk of sounding cliché, I’d like to see the top teams from each conference square off. Another matchup between the Nuggets and Raptors would be an entertaining game. A bump in the standings for the Thunder with a Raptor’s win would make for a nice Christmas bonus as well.
Alex Mcewen: The Toronto Raptors and the San Antonio Spurs. The Christmas slate is best when there is a marquee return on deck. The league couldn’t have gone wrong whether DeRozan made his return to the six, or Kawhi returned to the Alamo. But alas, we must wait until January 3, and February 22, respectively to see either event occur.
The Nuggets also deserve an honorable mention in this question, because at the time of this writing Denver is currently sitting atop the West standings.
Austin Sternlicht: The Raptors are the obvious choice. After that, I would go for star power since the rest of the league’s best teams are in there. Give me Dallas. We need more Luka in our lives.
Noah Schulte: Being from Colorado I may be biased here, but I’d have to go with the Denver Nuggets. They’re the number one team in the West right now and they have one of the best players in the league in Nikola Jokic; this should have been a no-brainer for the league. Joining them would be the Toronto Raptors, who are coincidentally the number one team in the East and have one of the best players in the league in Kawhi Leonard. As it stands, this would probably compete for the most entertaining match-up of the day.
Lawrence George: Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets. When the Mavericks drafted Luka Doncic in this year’s draft, I knew they had found their franchise player after watching him the past five years in Europe. While the US was largely asleep to this 19-year-old’s exceptional skills, he’s been in the limelight from as early as 14 year’s of age. Dallas also plays one of the most interesting brands of basketball relying on execution and consistency with coach Rick Carlisle continuing his excellence as an NBA coach.
Denver has been on an absolute tear, leaning heavily on the exceptional play from Serbian Nikola Jokic while dealing with a number of injuries. Despite the big man’s play, I am not a believer in the Nuggets and would like to see more of them. They have been the recipients of kind officiating. One game this was particularly obvious was in Denver’s victory over the Toronto Raptors at Scotia Bank Arena.
Tamberlyn Richardson: In case it was ever in doubt, reviewing the above responses it’s safe to say my disdain over the Raptors yet again being left off the Christmas schedule has seeped into several conversations among the team this season. Following the big trade I was hoping for a Raptors – Spurs game in Toronto where Jurassic Park would have been full and DeRozan showered with applause. Instead, I’ll refer to the Rolling Stones “you can’t always get what you want”.