REPORT: Knicks host Spurs on Christmas Day

Christmas Day just feels empty without the curtsy.

Even as the team drifted into mediocrity, irrelevance, and comedy, the Knicks stuck with Christmas until 2018, when Tim Hardaway Jr. and Mario Hezonja were marketed as the team's star talents. Today, the Knicks are more talented than they have ever been this century, and given the pull of Madison Square Garden, it was a sure bet that they would play on Christmas.

The only surprise is that it is a Western Conference team, the San Antonio Spurs.

From the teams' perspective, this duel is almost unattractive – the Spurs are already underdogs when it comes to qualifying for the play-in tournament and the only notable duel between the two teams was the Spurs' dominance over the Knicks in the 1999 NBA Finals, the first of their five finals in the Gregg Popovich era.

However, it is very clear what the association wants here. Victor Wembanyama, the sensational sophomore from France who almost unseated Rudy Gobert for Defensive Player of the Year last season as a rookie, will play his first Christmas game in the world's most famous arena.

This is only the 12th Spurs game on Christmas and the first in eight years. Their last Christmas game was in the first year of the post-Tim Duncan era in 2016 against the Bulls. Honestly, there is no better place for Wembanyama to be on Christmas. He is a new face of the league and the Spurs are not competitive enough to have a rivalry. OKC is the only team I would have considered based on SGA and the struggles those teams had a decade ago.

There is some juice here too.

The Knicks dominated the Spurs 126-105 in their first meeting last season. It was Wembanyama's eighth career game and he was held in check by Mitchell Robinson, who shot an inefficient 14-of-14 and 0-of-6 three-pointers.

The second meeting was an instant classic. A banged up and weakened Knicks team came to San Antonio on March 29, with injuries to OG Anunoby, Julius Randle and Alec Burks. With Deuce McBride in the starting lineup, the Knicks relied on Shake Milton in key minutes. However, the game was more known for an extremely competitive and entertaining back-and-forth between the teams, with Jalen Brunson making 47 shots and nearly leading his team to a 21-point comeback with a near-franchise record 61 points. Unfortunately, Victor Wembanyama delivered the defining game of his outstanding rookie year, dominating with a 40-point, 20-rebound performance on 22 shots.

The Knicks are playing their fourth consecutive Christmas game after a two-year hiatus. That two-year hiatus was the longest since they went eight years without playing in the games in the 2000s. This is their first Christmas game against a Western Conference opponent since they were swept by the Thunder in 2013. It's their first against the Spurs.

The Knicks are Christmas basketball. This is the Knicks' 57th appearance on Christmas with a record of 24-32. Some of the most iconic moments in Christmas basketball history have taken place in New York, including Bernard King's 60-point shot in 1984, a 25-point comeback in 1985 and a game-winning shot by Patrick Ewing in 1986. This is the 49th time MSG has hosted a Christmas game. The Knicks have spent Christmas on the road only once in the 21st century, when they visited Kobe Bryant and the Lakers in 2012.