There are no women's basketball games in the United States, but there will be five games today in the NBA starting at 12 PM ET. Just so you know:
1. Boston Celtics at Brooklyn Nets, 12 PM ET on ESPN
New York City and Boston don't particularly like each other, and it should be a good matchup as Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett face Deron Williams and Andray Blatche. Yeah, I said his name. Andray Blatche, just because. Nets are leading the series, 2-0 so far. They won't meet again until April 10 in Boston.
2. New York Knicks at Los Angeles Lakers, 3 PM ET on ABC
Carmelo Anthony's scoring, especially early in games has been a large reason why the Knicks have remained one of the Eastern Conference's top teams, and they will be favorites playing Kobe Bryant and his overall squad of sages on the Lakers. This is Staples Center's first NBA game of the night. See #5 which team is second. Knicks won the first match not even a couple weeks ago in the Garden.
3. Oklahoma City Thunder at Miami Heat, 5:30 PM ET on ABC
This is the rematch of the 2012 Finals, with the Miami Heat winning that matchup. You know which team I'm rooting for here.
4. Houston Rockets at Chicago Bulls, 8:00 PM ET on ESPN
The NBA hoped it would be Jeremy Lin vs. Derrick Rose. However, while Lin is playing okay, he isn't Linsane. James Harden however was a major acquisition for Houston and he has had a breakout season. For the Bulls, Rose is still coming back from an ACL injury, but his team, led by Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah has remained quite competitive so far. Houston goes for the series sweep having won the first match at home last month.
5. Denver Nuggets at Los Angeles Clippers, 10:30 PM ET on ESPN
The Nuggets, led by Andre Iguodala and Kenneth Faried, face off against Lob City, led by Blake Griffin and Chris Paul. The Clippers are in the middle of a franchise record 13 game winning streak as the Staples Center hosts its second NBA game of the night. This is the first of three matches between the teams.
And there's a women's basketball snippet we'd like to show you.
The UMMC Ekaterinburg women's basketball team (has stars like Deanna Nolan and Diana Taurasi) made a Jingle Bells YouTube video, in Russian of course. Enjoy below:
Новогодняя песня БК УГМК New year song of BC UMMC normal version (via Anastasia Polyakova)
Belated Update: James had this in a FanPost for European ball last week.
In addition, here is a piece from the WNBA on what some of the players in the league are doing during this time of year, whether abroad or in the USA.
Once again, Merry Christmas everyone and have a happy holiday!