Several NBA superstars and top teams will showcase their skills on national television for the Christmas Day games.
The Miami Heat will not.
Despite making the conference finals last year, they won’t be part of the lineup. The Heat are the only semifinalist at home for the holiday.
Heat forward Jimmy Butler viewed the scheduling as a form of disrespect.
“I don’t feel like the NBA rocks with the Miami Heat too much any way,” Butler said last week. “At least we get to play somewhere. We don’t get no TV games or nothing.”
Butler was referring to the Heat’s game in Mexico City last week against the San Antonio Spurs. The game is one of only 22 nationally televised for the Heat. Eleven of those are on NBATV, including Saturday, but aren’t as high profile as ABC, TNT or ESPN.
Today’s game will feature LeBron James, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Stephen Curry, Jay Morant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Devin Booker, Joel Embiid and many more All-Stars.
Here’s the full Christmas schedule:
Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks, noon
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Dallas Mavericks, 2:30 p.m
Boston Celtics vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 5 p.m
Golden State Warriors vs. Memphis Grizzlies, 8 p.m
Denver Nuggets vs. Phoenix Suns, 10:30 p.m
MORE HEAT-RELATED STORIES
How Miami Heat Twitter reacted to Friday’s loss to the Pacers. CLICK HERE
Takeaways from Friday’s loss to the Pacers. CLICK HERE
Could the Heat land Trae Young?. CLICK HERE
For a look at some of the latest Heat apparel. CLICK HERE
If you wanna bet on any games at @PrizePicks or PrizePicks.com, use our link and code. They will match your first bet for up to $100. Here’s the code: PR-R1YOFY6
Shandel Richardson covers the Miami Heat for Inside The Heat.
TWITTER: @ShandelRich
Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here
Subscribe to our YouTube channel here
For any Heat or NBA questions, please email [email protected]
.