How to watch, what to watch for on December 26 slate of the 2020-21 NBA regular season

Welcome to the Christmas Day hangover slate! After five games of drunkenly boring basketball on X-Mas, we have a loaded 10-game slate for Saturday. Fortunately, we won’t have to watch any teams that played on Christmas, half of which should be embarrassed of their performance, the other half needing a cigarette.

The most polarizing game for Saturday night is the Rockets-Blazers matchup. Houston will be a bit shorthanded with John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Gordon among the number of roster players in isolation. It’ll be James Harden and a rag tag group of men. Ironically their first game of the season will be against a team in which Harden reportedly wants to be traded to. Talk about awkward.

Other than that, it’s pretty much your garden-variety NBA Saturday night. Let’s take a look at the schedule to start the weekend.

NBA regular season schedule for Dec. 26

Atlanta Hawks vs. Memphis Grizzlies, 5:00 p.m. ET on NBA TV
Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Charlotte Hornets, 7:00 p.m. ET
Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Detroit Pistons, 7:00 p.m. ET
Orlando Magic vs. Washington Wizards, 7:00 p.m. ET
Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks, 7:30 p.m. ET on NBA TV
Indiana Pacers vs. Chicago Bulls, 8:00 p.m. ET
Toronto Raptors vs. San Antonio Spurs, 8:30 p.m. ET
Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Utah Jazz, 9:00 p.m. ET
Houston Rockets vs. Portland Trail Blazers, 10:00 p.m. ET on NBA TV
Phoenix Suns vs. Sacramento Kings, 10 p.m. ET