Western Conference foes meet in the middle matchup of the 2025 NBA Christmas schedule when the Golden State Warriors host the Dallas Mavericks. Dallas is 12-19 on the season and enters this matchup 11th in the Western Conference standings.

For Charles Barkley, however, the vision for the organization is clear: they need to end their "Defense wins championships" experiment because the player at the center of it — Anthony Davis — will never return to full strength, given his age and injury history.

Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry has known Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg longer than others in the NBA. Flagg attended Curry’s basketball camp back in the day, so Curry knew firsthand how talented Flagg was before the Warriors hosted the Mavericks on Christmas Day.

The Dallas Mavericks entered their Christmas Day road game against the Golden State Warriors looking to build on a 131‑130 win over the Denver Nuggets, a game in which Cooper Flagg scored 33 points and Anthony Davis added 31 to snap Denver’s 11‑game road win streak. Dallas was aiming to make it two wins in a row behind those performances.

Dallas started to chip away a little after Klay Thompson knocked down a mid-range shot, and Cooper Flagg got downhill to draw a goaltend (iffy) on a layup, which brought the lead down to 7. Then, Brandon Williams hit a basket in transition to cut the lead to five with less than seven minutes left.

Nothing says the Christmas season like a quick trip to Dallas...or something. That will be the case for the Denver Nuggets tonight as the play basketball