🗽Knicks Get Merry at the Mecca
Jalen Brunson was giving gifts (in the form of buckets) all day long.

🧯 Jaquez’ Huge Night Helps Heat
Jaime Jaquez continues to shine in his rookie year.

🌠 Luka Plows Past 10K Points
And that wasn’t even his best feat on Christmas night.

Knicks kick off Christmas with solid 129-122 win over Bucks

Great vibes in the Garden yesterday after New York (17-12) beat Milwaukee (22-8) in impressive fashion, kicked off with RJ Barrett and Jalen Brunson scoring 29 combined in the first quarter and Brunson finishing with 38 for the game. JB just continues to hoop— Christmas marked his eighth 30-point game this season, and also marked the Knicks’ first win against the Bucks since November 1st, 2021 (nine games).

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Murray’s late spark lift Nugs over Dubs 120-114 in matinee

We’re not saying this happened to us, but if you fell asleep during the second half of this game after eating a bunch of mashed potatoes and had to rewind the whole second half… that’s fine. You (not us) missed some good stuff live, though; like late-game Jamal Murray buckets, including this smooth sidestep three which helped Denver (22-10) put Golden State (15-15) away for good.

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Celtics defeat Lakers 126-115 because they’re just really good

Boston (23-6) is smart— they got a lot of really, really good players and now they just win all of their games, a strategy more teams should implement. Kristaps Porzingis (28 & 11) was dunking every missed shot, Derrick White just does everything right, and the C’s were just too much for Los Angeles (16-15) even with Anthony Davis pouring in 40.

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Jaquez lights up as Heat beat Sixers 119-113 without stars

No Joel Embiid or Jimmy Butler yet we still had a great time watching this game, and Jaime Jaquez Jr was a huge reason why. The Miami (18-12) rookie—who does not play like a rookie— had it all working Monday, scoring 31 points with 10 rebounds. Jaquez is so intentional with his movements, so sure of himself in a way that few rookies are. Him being on the Heat just makes too much sense. Bam Adebayo was pretty dominant in all facets of the game too, making it impossible for Philadelphia (20-9) to overcome the lack of Embiid. Obviously.

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Luka closes Christmas with masterpiece, Mavs beat Suns 128-114

Being the only player to ever record a statline is pretty much always a good thing unless the statline is like, zero points and 100 turnovers. Luka’s statline Monday was pretty much the opposite of that. We can’t think of a better way to end a scintillating Christmas slate than with a Luka Doncic absolute stunner: 50 points, 14 assists, six rebounds, four steals, three blocks. Oh, he also became the fastest active player to reach 10,000 career points, and did that in style. Truly a colossal talent.

🧠 Daily Trivia 🧠 

Unsung Heroes: Vince Williams Jr

😎 The Ultra-Rare Jokic Dunk
Retweet for 10 years of good luck.

🐶 We Have Terrible News
Jalen Brunson does not run his dog’s Twitter account.

🤯 Double The Derrick (Dereck)
Double the fun. We always say that.

What We’re Enjoying

Sacramento Kings: The Run. We’re such a sucker for teams creating high-quality, behind-the-scenes coverage during the NBA season and the Kings docu-series “The Run” scratches that itch perfectly. Great camerawork, music, and interviews make you think you’re a Kings fan for about 15 minutes at a time… even if you’ve never even been to Sacramento (beautiful city btw.)

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