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Good morning and happy Friday, everyone! Carter Bahns here with you as we enter the final weekend of 2026. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope your holiday treated you well and that Santa Claus put everything you wanted under the tree. He certainly brought a few gifts in the way of exciting NBA and NFL games. Well, that is unless you’re a Lions fan.In today’s newsletter, we’ll recap the Christmas sports slate and look ahead to the weekend, which includes more than a handful of critical football games as the NFL playoffs continue to take shape. Here we go. Five things to know Friday The NFL’s Christmas tripleheader saw the Lions fall out of playoff contention. Detroit lost a 23-10 shocker to the Vikings and saw their postseason hopes fall apart. The Lions’ championship window may not be fully closed yet, but they have work to do in the offseason to get back into contention. By virtue of Detroit’s defeat, the Packers are now officially in the playoffs. In the other Christmas games, the Cowboys took care of business against the Commanders for a 30-23 road win and the Broncos pulled out a close 20-13 road win over the Chiefs in what may have been Travis Kelce’s final game at Arrowhead Stadium.Nikola Jokić posted a masterful 56-16-15 triple-double to highlight the NBA’s Christmas slate. The Nuggets needed every bit of Jokić’s incredible performance as they outlasted the Timberwolves 142-138 in overtime. Earlier in the day, Stephen Curry surpassed 26,000 career points, becoming the 22nd player in NBA history to cross that threshold in a 126-116 Warriors victory over Cooper Flagg and the Mavericks. LeBron James was also in action and made his 20th Christmas Day appearance, but the Lakers fell 119-96 to the Rockets. Rounding out the holiday action was the Knicks’ 17-point fourth-quarter comeback to beat the Cavaliers and the Spurs’ statement 117-102 win over the Thunder.Brock Bowers and Rashee Rice joined the growing list of players on season-ending injured reserve. Bowers is done for the year with a knee injury, and Rice is out with a concussion. Neither the Raiders nor the Chiefs have anything left to play for over the final two weeks, so there is no point in rushing either back or having…
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2025-12-26 15:11:05
