Nuggets get Christmas game, face old but star-filled group

The Denver Nuggets will cap the NBA’s Christmas Day slate at Chase Center in San Francisco, traveling to face Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors on Dec. 25 at 8:30 p.m. MT on national TV, the league announced Tuesday.

It will be Denver’s fifth consecutive Christmas appearance — a stretch that has produced some of the franchise’s most electric recent moments.

The 2025 overtime thriller against the Timberwolves, a 142-138 overtime win in which Nikola Jokic produced one of the best individual performances in NBA history with the league’s first 55-15-15 as he set a record by scoring a record 18 points in the extra frame.

Before that came the 2023 showdown against these same Warriors at Ball Arena, a 120-114 Denver victory remembered as much for Steve Kerr’s loud postgame rant about the officiating as for the final score. Jokic and Jamal Murray did their thing while Steph Curry shot cold in a game without Draymond Green.

Go back one more year and there’s Aaron Gordon’s Christmas poster against Phoenix in 2022. An overtime thriller that announced the Nuggets championship intentions to the world as a just healthy Murray helped sleigh the (at the time) rival Suns.

Denver and Golden State have no shortage of recent history beyond the holiday. Their opening-night meeting last season was one of the best games of the 2025-26 campaign when Gordon and Curry went shot for shot from 3. It was the latest chapter in a rivalry that has percolated since the build up to Warriors’ dynasty years with the Andre Iguodala situation and Golden State’s 2022 title run that went through Denver and changed the shape of the club which would help the Nuggets claim a title in 2023.

But the Warriors are no longer a powerhouse. And further, this version might still be banged up by the time Santa delivers. Golden State’s summer was all about the pursuit of LeBron James, who chose the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency after what ESPN reported was the Warriors’ third failed attempt to acquire James in recent years.

Instead it’s a group similar to the one who has missed the playoffs in two of the last three years. One of the stars, Jimmy Butler, suffered a torn right ACL in January, while Moses Moody sustained a torn left patellar tendon in March, ending both players’ 2025-26 seasons. Butler is targeting a return before the February trade deadline, but the Warriors are expected to open the year without two of their key contributors. Curry himself, entering his 18th season, has called himself a “realist” about where the franchise stands.

Even shorthanded, Curry alone makes the assignment worthy of the Christmas stage. He is 5-7 in 12 career Christmas Day appearances, and Golden State will be playing the holiday for the 14th consecutive year. Jokic is 3-3 on the holiday.

For Denver sports fans wanting to catch both of the city’s Christmas games, they’ll be able to. The Broncos host a playoff rematch with the Buffalo Bills on Netflix at 2:30 p.m. MT. The Empower Field crowd should be able to get home — even if there’s a bit of holiday traffic — well before the Nuggets tip at 8:30 p.m.

The full NBA Christmas Day schedule:

• San Antonio Spurs at New York Knicks, 10 a.m. MT (ABC/ESPN)
• Miami Heat at Boston Celtics, 12:30 p.m. MT (ABC/ESPN)
• Philadelphia 76ers at Los Angeles Lakers, 3 p.m. MT (ABC/ESPN)
• Oklahoma City Thunder at Minnesota Timberwolves, 6 p.m. MT (ABC/ESPN)
• Denver Nuggets at Golden State Warriors, 8:30 p.m. MT (ABC/ESPN)

But we found out more on Tuesday, with the NBA revealing Denver’s first big test.

Denver will be opening its season on Thursday, Oct. 22, against Oklahoma City on ESPN — a little more than two months from now. It’s the third day of the 2026-27 season, mirroring last year’s early start. Unlike last season, when the Nuggets and Thunder didn’t meet until February, the schedule makers want to see these two West powers clash early.

Oklahoma City remains the team the Nuggets have to prove they can beat after the Thunder took the 2025 playoff series in seven games. The offseason only sharpened the rivalry’s edges. The Thunder extended a two-year, $12 million offer sheet to restricted free agent Spencer Jones, Denver’s young former two-way undrafted wing, who proved to be a rotation player last season. The Nuggets matched, but the attempt will be remembered. Oklahoma City, which shed depth in the offseason after that depth was one of the big reasons the Thunder beat Denver in the postseason, was trying to poach a player the Nuggets developed in house.

The Oct. 22 doubleheader on ESPN:

• Cleveland Cavaliers at Philadelphia 76ers, 7 p.m. ET
• Denver Nuggets at Oklahoma City Thunder, 9:30 p.m. ET

The full 2026-27 schedule will be released Thursday.

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