According to WIP’s Jon Johnson, tens of thousands of Sixers fans may have somewhere else to head other than Grandma’s house this December 25.
It would mark the third straight Christmas Day game for the Sixers, who defeated the Knicks in 2017 and lost in overtime to the Celtics in 2018. However, both of those games came on the road. The NBA dishes out these high-profile holiday games as a sort of status symbol regarding which teams “matter” in the league, and getting hosting duties is an additional feather in a team’s cap.
If Toronto wins the title tonight, Philadelphia can reasonably voice a claim as the second-best team in the NBA this past season (factoring in Kevin Durant’s injuries).