NBA Christmas Day scores, takeaways: Luka Doncic deserves more MVP buzz; Knicks’ Jalen Brunson dissects Bucks

NBA Christmas Day has officially come and gone. Five games headlined the holiday slate as stars from throughout the league played from noon ET through the end of the night. The New York Knicks kicked things off at Madison Square Garden in a win over the Milwaukee Bucks, while Luka Doncic capped the Christmas Day slate by gift-wrapping a 50-piece for the Phoenix Suns in a 128-114 Dallas Mavericks victory. Doncic added 15 assists, six boards, four steals and three blocks to his masterful night. He tortured the Suns in every way possible, which has become a theme in his career. 

Speaking of Doncic’s career, which is already Hall of Fame worthy, he became the fastest active player to reach 10K points, and just the sixth to do so before his 25th birthday, with this 34-foot make in the first quarter. 

The runner-up for performance of the day goes to Jalen Brunson, who dropped 38 in the Knicks’ win. We’ll talk more about Brunson, Jamie Jaquez Jr. and the Celtics’ 3-point shooting in a second. 

Other notable performances: Anthony Davis going for 40 in a loss to Boston, and Stephen Curry and Tyrese Maxey delivering surprising duds. 

Well, perhaps we shouldn’t call Curry’s 7-for-21 (3-for-13 from 3) stinker a surprise. He’s been terrible on Christmas for some time now. 

Maxey was even worse, finishing with 12 points on 4-for-20 shooting, including 1-of-8 from deep. And even the one made 3-pointer was a meaningless shot at the end. Maxey, who has been superb all season, could not throw it in the ocean.

Nikola Jokic finishing with just four baskets was a head turner (4-for-12), but he made up for it by going 18-for-18 from the free-throw line to finish with 26 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists. 

Below are the results of all five Christmas games, as well as one main takeaway from each:

NBA Christmas Day scoresBig-time Brunson

The Milwaukee Bucks had no answer for Brunson. It was sort of insulting to start the game with Malik Beasley on him again, but it’s not like Khris Middleton or Andre Jackson Jr. fared much better. In the New York Knicks’ 129-122 victory, which kicked off the Christmas Day slate, Brunson gave everybody the business.

Fun fact about Brunson’s big day, in which he scored 38 points on 15-for-28 shooting and didn’t commit a single turnover: Only one of his makes was a pull-up 3-pointer. 

This was not simply a case of one of the league’s best off-the-dribble shooters — he’s making a preposterous 43.8% of his pull-up 3s this season — taking advantage of Brook Lopez being parked in the paint against pick-and-rolls. No, this was one of the league’s most skilled scorers breaking down Milwaukee’s defense over and over again. 

Brunson has the footwork to create open shots out of thin air, and he has the touch to make tough ones when there’s no better option. Brunson could have pulled up from deep more often. That he didn’t suggests that, when he looks at the Bucks’ defense, he doesn’t just see an opportunity to create open space on the perimeter; he thinks, ‘I can get whatever I want.’

Brunson, who is listed at 6-foot-2, is the rare guard who bullies bigger players. He’s comfortable making plays in traffic, and he routinely rescues possessions that extend late in the shot clock. Brunson’s early-third-quarter dime to Isaiah Hartenstein was one of the prettiest plays of the day, but his missed shot on the previous possession was just as meaningful. With a step-through against Middleton at the last possible second, he forced Lopez to help, giving Hartenstein a free path to an easy put-back dunk.

For the Knicks, who don’t have the league’s most free-flowing offense, Brunson is exactly the kind of playmaker they need. He’s an expert at gaining tiny edges, then exploiting them. His performance against Milwaukee was a masterpiece, but it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary — he had a near-identical stat line against the same team three days ago and dropped 50 points on the Phoenix Suns a week before that.

Brunson also gave the Bucks 45 in early November. For those who start watching the NBA around this time every year, his latest dismantling of their defense provided a couple of helpful updates. One is that Milwaukee, which ranks 20th on defense, is no longer good enough on that end to overcome subpar shooting on a consistent basis. The other is that Brunson, who was drafted in the second round in 2018 and only became a full-time starter last season, is all but assured of a spot in this year’s All-Star Game.— James Herbert

Jokic gets help in fourth, Curry doesn’t

Both the Nuggets and Warriors received contributions up and down the roster on Christmas Day, but ultimately the game came down to which stars could perform down the stretch. Both Steph Curry (7-for-21, including 3-of-13 from three) and Nikola Jokic (4-of-12) struggled from the field, but Jokic bullied his way to 26 points thanks to an 18-for-18 performance from the foul line, the most without a miss on Christmas Day in NBA history.

With the game in the balance in the final frame, however, it was Jamal Murray who took over. He scored seven points without a miss in the final five minutes to help seal the victory. Meanwhile, Curry only got one basket apiece from Chris Paul and Andrew Wiggins during the same stretch — and nothing from Klay Thompson. This is the major difference between the Warriors and Nuggets right now. 

When Jokic has an off game (or even when he doesn’t), Murray is ready and willing to take over offensive responsibilities in the fourth quarter. When Curry has a rare poor performance, it’s crickets in the fourth from the rest of the Warriors. 

Golden State has displayed great depth since the emergence of young players like Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga, but they’re not going to be a legitimate contender until they have a reliable secondary scorer in crunch time. — Colin Ward-Henninger

Celtics win without hitting 3s

The Celtics’ 3-point shooting has been a big topic of conversation lately. In particular, do they take too many? They missed 41 3s in their collapse against the Warriors, but bounced back and hit 47-of-95 in their two dominant wins over the Kings and Clippers.

Early on Christmas Day, it seemed like their red-hot shooting would continue, but they cooled off considerably after the first quarter. Their ability to win games when that happens has been called into question, but they adjusted well against the Lakers. In the second half, they attacked the paint time and again, getting to the rim and the free throw line; they shot 16-of-20 in the restricted area and 14-of-19 from the line, which accounted for 46 of their 68 second-half points.

The Celtics are never going to give up their 3-point attack — even against the Lakers they still shot 42, which is just about their league-leading season average of 43.2 — but too often when those shots aren’t going in, they don’t get enough easy points to make up the difference. That they did on Christmas was an encouraging sign for their future prospects. — Jack Maloney

Jaime Jaquez Jr. is a difference-maker

This year’s Rookie of the Year race is clearly between Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren, but Jaquez’s consistent play has helped him establish that he’s right behind those two. The UCLA product isn’t phased by the bright lights and was the star of a Christmas Day game that featured Bam Adebayo, Tyrese Maxey and Tyler Herro. 

Jaquez leads all rookies in minutes and while his counting stats aren’t as impressive as the aforementioned first-year players, coach Erik Spoelstra’s confidence in his poise and basketball IQ has made it clear that he can be impactful for a playoff team whether he has the ball in his hands or not. Showing effort when crashing the glass, cutting and having the awareness required to play strong team defense makes it easy for him to contribute night after night regardless of his role.

While the Miami Heat appear to not have enough star power on paper to make a deep run annually, their scouting and player development of players like Jaquez could help them exceed expectations once again when the postseason comes around, even if their headliners are in and out of the lineup throughout the regular season. — Ameer Tyree

Luka Doncic’s MVP night

There really hasn’t been a clear cut favorite for MVP right now. Nikola Jokic leads most oddsmakers lists, and rightfully so, he’s been consistently dominant on a Denver team that looks primed to make another deep postseason run. There’s also Joel Embiid, the reigning MVP, who is routinely putting up video game numbers. 

You could make the case for several other players at this point, but it feels like there isn’t enough MVP attention being given to Doncic. He just dropped 50 points on a team that has Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. It was a game that the Suns were favored to win, because Kyrie Irving is out for Dallas as well as several other role players. And yet, here comes Doncic, once again saving the Mavericks.

Not only did Doncic put up 50, he did it on an absurd 15-of-25 from the field, while also racking up 15 assists, six rebounds and four steals and three blocks.

Oh, and he reached 10K career points, becoming the sixth-youngest player in league history to reach that milestone, and tied for seventh-fastest player to reach that mark. His 50 points also tied for the third-most points scored in a Christmas Day game. 

Doncic has the Mavericks out to an 18-12 start to the season, good for fifth in the Western Conference, and if he continues to play this way, it’ll be difficult to keep him off that MVP ballot at the end of the season. — Jasmyn Wimbish