It was a little strange watching the NBA’s Christmas slate without the Celtics.
It’s been a decade since Boston has been left off the docket for the league’s biggest regular-season showcase, long enough that Jaylen Brown hasn’t had a Christmas off since he was in college.
That meant the surging Celtics, who are third in the East at 18-11, could kick their feet up for the best day on the basketball calendar. In case you opted to spend some time with family instead of ignoring them to watch some hoops, here’s what you missed.
▪ The day started at Madison Square Garden, where the Cavaliers’ disappointing start to the season continued with a rough loss to the Knicks.
Cleveland blew a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter to fall to 17-15 on the season, a major letdown for a team that was 26-4 after Christmas last season. The Cavaliers are spending big on this middling performance, too, as the only team above the second apron (and $22 million above it, by the way).
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But hey, at least Donovan Mitchell had this very cool, if ultimately meaningless, dunk in the final minute.
▪ The most highly anticipated game of the day was in Oklahoma City, where the budding Spurs-Thunder rivalry tipped off for the third time in the last two weeks.
After Oklahoma City jumped out to a 24-1 record, matching the 2015-16 Warriors for the best start in NBA history, there was plenty of talk about the Thunder challenging Golden State’s 73-win mark. There’s a little less talk about it after San Antonio crushed Oklahoma City on Christmas, the third time the Spurs have beaten the Thunder in the space of 16 days.
The worrying thing for Oklahoma City as these two teams appear on a collision course for a playoff showdown in the spring: San Antonio has won all three matchups despite limited contributions from superstar Victor Wembanyama, who has come off the bench on a minutes restriction in his return from a calf injury.
▪ The Warriors handled the Mavericks, who lost big man Anthony Davis to yet another injury as he pulled up with a groin issue while jogging down the floor.
It’s a shame that one of the best big men of his era is seemingly made of papier-mâché. Perhaps Dallas trading its generational superstar for a guy that rarely plays more than 50 games a season wasn’t the best idea.On the bright side for the Mavericks, No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg continues to show flashes of stardom.
Flagg, who just turned 19 last week, had 27 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists on Christmas, the sort of statline the Mainer is making a relative regularity.Over his last 12 games, Flagg is averaging 25.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 5.3 assists, all while doing stuff like this to remind us all how special he is. Did I mention that he only just turned 19? He became the youngest player in NBA history to score 40 points in a game when he dropped 42 on the Jazz in his final days as an 18-year-old.
Steph Curry had some high praise for the New Englander on Christmas.
“That’s a true hooper, competitor. You forget how young he is, just his presence out there on the court. The future is bright. … The league is in good hands.”
Cooper Flagg (right) was one of the stars of NBA Christmas.Eakin Howard/Associated Press
▪ There are all sorts of bad vibes in Los Angeles at the moment, with the Lakers taking the biggest beating of the day at the hands of the Rockets.
Los Angeles is on a three-game skid, with those three losses coming by a combined 62 points. Coach JJ Redick was feeling especially un-festive in the aftermath (take a deep breath for this one):
“We’ve been a good basketball team, and when we haven’t, we’ve been a terrible basketball team,” Redick said. “Tonight, we were a terrible basketball team, and that started, legitimately, right away. We don’t care enough to, like, do the things that are necessary; we don’t care enough to be professional. We had it — it can change like that. We don’t have it right now.
“I said the other night: It’s a matter of making a choice, and we have too many guys that don’t want to make that choice. And it’s pretty consistent who those guys are. Saturday’s practice, I told the guys, is going to be uncomfortable. The meeting is going to be uncomfortable. I’m not doing another 53 games like this.”
Phew! This would’ve been quote of the week material if not for the existence of Joe Mazzulla (more on that later!).
▪ NBA Christmas fittingly saved the very best for last, with the Nuggets and Timberwolves staging an overtime thriller to finish the night. Denver blew a 16-point lead at home, with the finest of Minnesota star Anthony Edwards’s 44 points coming on this turning, fading, Jaylen Brown-esque corner 3-pointer to send the game to overtime.
The Nuggets looked poised for a terrible loss after allowing the first 9 points of overtime, but as usual, Nikola Jokic came to the rescue. The three-time MVP had an NBA-record 18 points in the extra period, finishing off a masterpiece with some clutch free-throw shooting.
The Serbian superstar finished with 56 points, 16 rebounds, and 15 assists, shooting an absurd 22 of 23 from the free throw line.
(Edwards, meanwhile, was ejected in the final seconds and was not happy about it. He was still kind enough to stop for some autographs, though.)
So that’s how Christmas unfolded with the Celtics on the sideline. I’m sure Boston will be back under the tree next season, especially after Hugo Gonzalez, Jordan Walsh, and Luka Garza lead the Celtics to a Finals sweep over the Thunder in June, setting up a rematch at TD Garden next Christmas.
For now, the Celtics will have to settle for a Boxing Day trip to Indiana. It’ll have to do.
Bill Chisholm purchased his boyhood team this year.Erin Clark/Globe Staff
Bill Chisholm’s first business venture was in journalism, and other anecdotes about the new Celtics owner
There was only so much to squeeze into this past Sunday’s feature on the Celtics’ new lead governor, Bill Chisholm.
So here is a collection of stories and nuggets about Chisholm, his family, and the new ownership group, picked up from the cutting room floor.
Other top stories we’re watching …
The Joe Mazzulla Quote of the Week
Congratulations to Joe Mazzulla, an animal-loving winner of the Joe Mazzulla Quote of the Week.
I’m not even going to bother setting this one up.
Here’s what Mazzulla told Zolak and Bertrand on 98.5 this week:
“I’m trying to convince my wife — we obviously have a dog — but I’m trying to convince her to get a wolf that just kind of roams the area of our house, as kind of an extra layer of protection,” Mazzulla said. “But apparently the trainer said that another guy had one and it turned on him in the middle of the night. And I was like, it obviously didn’t have a good enough relationship with him.”
The Celtics open a five-game road trip with a game in Indiana on Friday (7 p.m., NBC Sports Boston).Here’s a preview.
See the full Celtics schedule here.
Amin Touri can be reached at amin.touri@globe.com.