The Christmas Knicks are back in style in 2025.
Coming off of a memorable trip to the Eastern Conference Finals and listed as a consensus co-favorite to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals next season, our very own Knicks will once again be part of the NBA’s festivities on Christmas Day, as Shams Charania reports that they will host the Cleveland Cavaliers in the World’s Most Famous Arena on December 25th.
It’s the 58th time in Knicks’ history that they’ll play on Xmas, the most in NBA history. It’ll be the fifth year in a row the team is featured in the biggest regular season spectacle on the calendar, the longest such streak since 2009-14. It’s the 10th consecutive Christmas home game for the Knicks, with the last time they were on the road being 2012 in Los Angeles.
For the first time, they’ll face their likely biggest competition in the East next year, the Cavaliers, on Christmas Day in a rematch of the first round of the 2023 playoffs. The Cavs will be featured on Christmas for the first time since 2017, their last year with LeBron James. Cleveland, who won 64 games last season, will be a formidable test on national television, returning their core of Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, and Evan Mobley, although losing key depth piece Ty Jerome.
The Knicks are 25-32 on Christmas Day, tied with the Lakers for the most wins (and alone in first with the most losses). The Cavs are 7-7.
Around the league, the other four games will all be Western Conference matchups, as Victor Wembanyama will look to follow up last year’s performance against the reigning champion Thunder, Kevin Durant and LeBron James (hopefully) square off, the new look Mavs featuring Cooper Flagg visit Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry, and we get a rematch of the 2024 WCF with Anthony Edwards and the Wolves facing Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets.
The NBA’s full schedule will be released later this month, with notable dates (including the season/home openers) likely being revealed ahead of the official release. However, we do know that the Knicks will not be on Opening Night and the return to NBC on October 21.