We knew Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets were playing on Christmas, but now we know the time as well as some other early-season big-time games the team will play.

The NBA shared that Denver’s Christmas contest will tip at 8:30 Mountain Time at Ball Arena, and we all know how those go, so that could be even slightly later. The Nuggets will meet the Timberwolves in the finale of ESPN’s slate of five games. It’s an honor to play on the NBA’s biggest regular-season day and Denver will do it for the fifth time this decade. The team is 2-2 in those recent games.

Maybe the memorable was another 8:30 tip, when the Nuggets took the Suns into overtime and Aaron Gordon threw down one of the best dunks in Denver hoops history. It led directly to a win and a vanquishing of the hated Phoenix squad who had the Nuggets’ number with Jamal Murray’s absence from a knee injury. But that all changed on that Christmas when Denver faced their desert rivals for the first time as fully healthy in years.

This time it’s another foe that’s bitten the Nuggets bad recently, the Timberwolves. Minnesota has beaten the Nuggets six straight times, with a blowout win in Game 6 of Round 2 in the 2024 playoffs, followed by their historic Game 7 comeback. Then they swept Denver during the 2024-25 regular season. Among those four games were two blowout wins for the T-Wolves and multiple double-digit fourth-quarter leads blown, including maybe the most painful loss of last year, coming in double overtime and leading directly to the firing of Michael Malone.

That last contest also featured Nikola Jokic’s historic 60-point triple-double, a feat that is not going to get the recognition it deserves down the line because there’s an L on the stat sheet thanks to the antics of Russell Westbrook.

The NBA also revealed an earlier season meeting between the two teams, coming on Monday, Oct. 27 at 7:30 as part of the league’s first exclusive doubleheader on Peacock.

The Nuggets’ first game is also now known, with the team opening up on the road at Golden State on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. The Thunder tip-off play for the league earlier that week on Tuesday, so Denver will be one of the last teams to get things going.

The full NBA schedule, including the Nuggets, will come out on Thursday.

Here’s what we know for the Nuggets now:

*10/4/25 vs. Minnesota — San Diego, 7 PM
*10/6/25 @ Toronto — Vancouver, 8 PM
*10/12/25 @ LA Clippers — Los Angeles, 8 PM
*10/14/25 vs. Chicago — Denver, 7 PM
*10/17/25 @ Oklahoma City — Oklahoma City, 6 PM

10/23/25 @ Golden State — San Francisco, CA, 8 PM
10/27/25 vs. Minnesota — Denver, 7:30 PM
12/25/25 vs. Minnesota — Denver, 8:30 PM

The Nuggets will host Golden State and San Antonio, and will travel to Houston and Portland for the NBA Cup, which will take place mostly in November.