The Denver Nuggets have legitimate championship aspirations in 2022-23. As matchups for the NBA’s holiday marquee continue to be revealed, the league is treating two-time defending MVP Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets accordingly.
Mike Singer of the The Denver Post reported on Sunday that Denver will face off with the Phoenix Suns on the NBA’s Christmas slate this season, a much-needed course correction after the Nuggets were spurned a year ago.
After getting bypassed for a Christmas game last season, the #Nuggets are slated to host the Suns on Christmas this year according to the initial draft of the schedule, a league source told @denverpost.
— Mike Singer (@msinger) August 14, 2022
The Golden State Warriors will reportedly host the Memphis Grizzlies on December 25th in another installment of basketball’s fiercest budding rivalry. The Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks will reportedly take center stage on Christmas, too, for a duel between LeBron James and Luka Doncic.
Denver fell to the eventual champion Warriors in the first round of the playoffs last season. But with Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. returning from injury and the Nuggets getting stouter defensively with the offseason additions of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown, they have more realistic championship ambitions in 2022-23 than at any previous point of the Jokic era.
The Suns, meanwhile, are coming off a humiliating collapse to Doncic and the Mavericks in Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals. The top seed in the playoffs a season ago, Phoenix ultimately brought back Deandre Ayton on a long-term deal this summer despite his fractured relationship with coach Monty Williams and future Hall-of-Fame point guard Chris Paul.
Expect both teams to put on a holiday show in a rematch of their second-round series from 2021, shortly after Murray went down with a torn ACL.
