The NBA’s Christmas Day slate features five games, four title favorites, three potential future MVPs, two 17-time champions and an actual Charlie Brown. There is something for everyone. Allow me to explain.
For the uninitiated
The Knicks were back. They wildly exceeded expectations last season, securing a playoff spot — a home seed at that — for the first time in eight seasons. They did so under hard-nosed coach Tom Thibodeau, an assistant in New York when last the Knicks reached the NBA Finals in 1999, playing the same brutish style.