Highlighted by the Celtics visiting the Lakers, the NBA is featuring five games on Christmas Day, the most since 1979, when there also were five games.
This is the NBA's busiest day ever for televised regular season games.
Last year, there were only three games televised on Christmas, but with the holiday landing on a Thursday, when TNT has exclusive rights to show its weekly doubleheader, the league and its television partners decided to take advantage of the day, which accounts for one-fourth of its regular season national television audience.
"The NBA has historically owned Christmas, and we felt this really gives the fans what they like to see -- and that's basketball," said Danny Meiseles, the NBA's senior vice president for production, programming and broadcasting, and executive producer of NBA Entertainment. "We wanted to maximize as much as we could."