Nuggets gifted opportunity to play the role of Grinch for hated rivals

Anta Claus is coming to town. 

Per a tweet from ESPN’s Shams Charania, Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves will head to Ball Arena for what many assume will be the finale of the NBA’s Christmas Day showcase. 

Joining the Nuggets and Wolves playing Christmas games are the Cavaliers, traveling to Madison Square Garden for a matchup with the Knicks; the defending champion OKC Thunder hosting Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs; the new-look Rockets, led by Kevin Durant, facing off against Luka Doncic, LeBron James and the rest of the Lakers; and Stephen Curry and his Warrior teammates hosting No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg and the Mavericks. 

Western Conference Flavor 

The Cavs-Knicks game features the only two Eastern Conference teams the league opted to showcase on its most significant day of the regular season. Yes, recent contenders like the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics suffered injuries to their star players during the postseason, but this decision points to the imbalance between the two conferences heading into the 2025-26 season. 

The Nuggets will be making their fourth straight appearance on Christmas.  The Lakers and Warriors have been featured frequently on recent Christmases, with both teams playing each of the last 10 years. New York, the league’s most frequent Christmas Day player, has played in seven of the last 10. 

Wembanyama and San Antonio will make their second consecutive appearance, while their in-state rival Mavericks, are set for their sixth straight game on Christmas Day. The other NBA team in Texas, Houston, hasn’t appeared as part of the NBA’s Christmas showcase since 2019. Oklahoma City hasn’t played on Christmas since 2018. For Cleveland, you have to go all the way back to 2017 when LeBron led the Cavs in their last Christmas game. 

No big market in Philadelphia. No Eastern Conference teams on the rise like Orlando and Detroit. Sounds like the NBA thinks this season’s storylines will largely be shaped out west. 

Minny & Denver: No Love Lost

And one such storyline is the burgeoning Northwest Division rivalry between the Nuggets and Timberwolves. Between two playoff matchups in three seasons and a good amount of crossover between coaching and front office staffs, the two teams have fostered a healthy dislike of each other. 

While most of the rest of this season’s schedule has yet to be announced, this nationally televised Christmas matchup will provide our Denver Nuggets with an early-season opportunity to get the sour taste of the last several matchups against the loathsome bunch from Minneapolis out of their mouths. 

It’s hard to believe that our Nuggets have lost six straight games against the Wolves — two in the 2024 playoffs, including Game 7 in Denver, and four throughout the last regular season. And those six games don’t even include losses during preseason last year and this most recent Summer League, when Edwards reportedly said, “It’s all good, I be busting their ass,” while giving a young Nuggets fan an autograph. 

The Nuggets eliminated the T-Wolves en route to the first NBA title in franchise history, but Minnesota and former Nuggets GM Tim Connelly tinkered with the roster and upset the defending champion Nuggets during the 2024 playoffs. After falling to the Thunder in round two, the Nuggets once again failed to return to the Conference Finals — the round Minnesota has qualified for in consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history.

After sending Nickeil Alexander-Walker to Atlanta via a sign-and-trade deal, Minnesota will turn to young players like Terrence Shannon Jr., Jaylen Clark, and Rob Dillingham to fill the gaps, but last year’s roster remains largely intact. Denver’s offseason maneuvers to improve the roster around Nikola Jokic, on the other hand, elicit hope that the franchise will bring another championship to the Mile High City. 

And this season’s Christmas matchup provides both teams with an early measuring-stick game against a rival on the national stage. I'm already fired up! Let’s just hope the Nugs improve on their abysmal 3-7 record in Christmas Day games.