LA Clippers @ Denver Nuggets
Closing out Christmas night almost always consists of a West Coast matchup. In this case, it would be a rematch of the Western Conference Semifinals in which the Denver Nuggets came back from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the LA Clippers.
This could be viewed somewhat as a grudge match for the Clippers and would give us an early look at where the Clippers stand under year 2 of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. With Ty Lue as the team’s head coach, he’d get an early test to see how far along he is with the Clippers.
We’d still get star power to close the night with Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Leonard, and George. Perhaps one of these two teams also pulls the trigger on a trade during the offseason to add more firepower to their punch.
These two teams figure to have a hand in who will come out of the Western Conference this season and we could get an early measuring stick game to see where each of the team stands.