National Basketball Association

Lakers vs. Nets on Christmas Day highlights NBA's national TV schedule

Updated Aug. 17, 2021 6:38 p.m. ET

The NBA's 75th season is setting up to deliver an action-packed slate of national television games.

Fresh off the NBA Draft and with Summer League having wrapped in Las Vegas, the league released the schedule for all of its nationally televised games this season, and it isn't lacking in star power.

Opening the season on Oct. 19 is a rematch of the epic, seven-game Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets, with the Nets traveling to Milwaukee for ring night.

That will be followed by the new-look Los Angeles Lakers playing host to the Golden State Warriors for a nightcap.

If opening night sounds action-packed, the Christmas Day schedule is even more star-studded.

After announcing his arrival as a superstar in his first-round playoff series against the New York Knicks, Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks will return to Madison Square Garden to start the fun on Christmas.

That will be followed by Giannis Antetokounmpo and the reigning champion Bucks traveling to Boston to take on the Celtics — a matchup that will feature newly minted Olympic gold medalists Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton and Jayson Tatum.

In addition, Stephen Curry and the Warriors will travel to Phoenix to face the reigning Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns, marking the Suns' first Christmas Day game in 12 years.

But the main event Christmas will be the highly anticipated matchup between the Nets and Lakers at Staples Center, which features no shortage of storylines.

LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and James Harden have all won MVP awards, with Durant and James each having won multiple Finals MVPs as well.

When adding Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Blake Griffin, Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony into the mix, there could be nine players in the game who have made at least six All-Star Game appearances.

To end the night, the Dallas Mavericks and Luka Dončić, arguably the NBA's top young superstar, will take on the Utah Jazz, the team that claimed the best record in the NBA in the 2020-21 regular season.

Adding to the intrigue is the fact that Dončić and Donovan Mitchell were both in the top four in scoring average during the 2021 postseason, with Dončić coming in first at 35.7 PPG and Mitchell ranking fourth with 32.3 PPG.

Get your popcorn ready.

The NBA is the gift that is going to keep on giving this fall and winter.

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