Strange Suns Christmas Day trend may determine NBA Finals team
12/25/2024 10:25 PM
One wouldn’t think that the Phoenix Suns would decide the fate of the NBA season, but over the past few seasons, that’s exactly what they have done. And heading into the Suns’ 2024 Christmas Day game at 10:30 PM E.T., their opponent, the Denver Nuggets, will be hoping that a strange Christmas trend will continue for this season.
In a bit of an odd coincidence, for the past three Christmas Day games for the Suns, the teams they faced (and lost to) went on to made the NBA Finals, as pointed out by Duane Rankin of AZ Central.
Back in 2021, it was the eventual 2022 champion Golden State Warriors that beat the Suns, 116-107. The following year, it was Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets who outlasted the Suns in overtime, 128-125 — and they eventually won the championship in 2023. And then last year, the Suns’ sworn rival, Dallas Mavericks, beat Phoenix on Christmas and went all the way to the NBA Finals, although they did lose to the Boston Celtics.
Of course, there isn’t anything concrete on the Suns’ side of things that links the past three teams to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals other than the fact that they were the teams to defeat Phoenix on Christmas Day. But this is indeed a strange trend that superstitious people would want to keep an eye on.
It will be interesting to see what would happen if the Suns end up defeating the Nuggets later tonight. Will they be the ones to advance to the NBA Finals in June 2025? Or does this trend only apply to the team that beats Phoenix? Only time will tell.
Nuggets vs. Suns Christmas Day 2024 preview
The Suns started off the 2024-25 season on the best note possible, a promising sign following their disappointing 2023-24 campaign. But since then, they’ve come crashing down to earth, which one could mostly chalk up to their unceasing injury problems. Even then, the Suns have not been playing well lately, and their most recent game, a 117-90 loss to the Nuggets, showed that their problems may run deeper than their injuries.
With that said, the Nuggets should be favored to take another Christmas Day win over the Suns. They defeated the Devin Booker-less Suns by 27 a few days ago, and now, they’re going to get Jamal Murray back from a one-game absence. Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal will have to put up herculean efforts (which they’re certainly capable of) with Booker still out due to a groin injury, and at home, role players will be performing better than they did on the 23rd. But a lot of things have to go right for them to snap their Christmas Day losing streak.
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