#4 – Portland Trail Blazers vs. Utah Jazz

For the first time in over 20 years, the Utah Jazz are playing on Christmas Day. The league seems to be high on Donovan Mitchell after his stellar rookie season, and the Jazz could potentially be one of the better teams in the Western Conference this year.

This game will be a good opportunity for more casual fans to see just how good Utah is, since they don’t get as much national media attention as they perhaps deserve. This will be the first Christmas game for players like Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, giving them a chance to raise their profile on one of the sport’s biggest stages.

Portland is a good opponent for Utah in this game. They’re a divisional rival and they come into the 2018-19 season with some interesting storylines. How will they bounce back from the embarrassing first-round sweep at the hands of the New Orleans Pelicans? Can Damian Lillard keep up the pace he set last March for an entire season and potentially contend for the league’s MVP award? Will either he or CJ McCollum be out of town by the time this game is even played?

This seems like a fun and interesting game on paper, and the only reason that I don’t have it higher on this list is because of the time that it starts. 10:30 p.m. on the East coast is a rough situation in terms of getting people to tune in, especially after four other games have already been played. The hardcore basketball junkies will tune in, but they already know how fun both of these teams are to watch.

Next Up: Game 3