Mavericks Christmas Day Announcement Sets Up Revenge Game for Sharpshooting Vet

When the NBA announced the Christmas Day slate for the upcoming 2025-26 season this week, some Dallas Mavericks fans might've predicted that a matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers was going to make the card, remembering that Luka Doncic's last game in a Mavs uniform was on Dec. 25 before injuring his calf and ... you know the rest.

That will have to wait another day, as the league may have already played out this new "rivalry" following The Trade that sent Doncic to L.A. for Anthony Davis on Feb. 1.

Dallas already had a Cooper Flagg vs. Bronny James showcase in the Summer League, and the two are scheduled to square off again in a televised preseason game this October. This, of course, comes after the most-watched game of the season last year when Doncic returned to America Airlines Center in tears and torched the Mavs with 45 points.

On Christmas instead, it will be another revenge game, but this time for a current Mavs player.

Dallas will play at the Golden State Warriors at 4 p.m. CT on Christmas Day - the third game of the nearly full-day ABC/ESPN coverage.

This meeting in the Bay Area serves as a holiday homecoming for Mavericks guard Klay Thompson as the veteran spent 11 seasons with the Dubs, turning into one of the sport's greatest perimeter shooters. He is fondly remembered as one half of the "Splash Bros" with Stephen Curry, whom he won four championships with alongside Warriors enforcer Draymond Green.

One day Thompson will have his No. 11 hanging in the rafters at Chase Center next to those two, but for now - wearing No. 31 in Dallas - Thompson hopes to make an impact for a revitalized Mavs roster that has title aspirations in 2025-26.

Thompson enters his second full season in Dallas after ending a controversial free agency by switching teams for the first time in his career ahead of last season. The three-point marksman wanted to re-sign in Golden State, but felt under appreciated by the organization, so chose to prioritize himself with a team that still believed in his potential.

Despite being 35 years old and coming off of Achilles and ACL injuries this decade, the Mavs trusted Thompson could return to his All-Star level in a spot-up role.

While his three-point numbers hovered below his career averages, they were still among the elite marks across the league. He also shot the second-best free-throw percentage of his career, eclipsing 90 percent for the third time as a pro.

Of course, Dallas' 2024-25 season was brutally defined by a franchise-altering trade and a slew of devastating injuries, but this offseason sparked new life into the team and fan base.

Thompson is expected to be joined by star rookie prospect Cooper Flagg in the starting lineup, Dallas' prized No. 1 overall draft pick who shares comparable generational traits of players like Doncic upon entering the league.

The rest of the Mavs schedule will be announced this week, so Christmas Day may not even be the team's first game of the season in San Francisco, as Dallas plays two road games against the Western Conference Warriors. However, this one will definitely be one of the largest stages of the season.

Expect Thompson to be fed an enormous amount of touches around the three-point arc as he hopes to light up his former squad ... just as Luka did to the Mavericks in his own return.

The Mavericks franchise may not have the same distain for the Warriors in a rivalry sense (we've moved on from '07 when Dirk won a title) as they do now with the Lakers, but for Klay Thompson, those feelings are there.

Things are personal, and Captain Klay is hoping to play the Grinch.

In his four games against Golden State last year? We've already seen how Thompson can rise to the occasion against his former team. He averaged 19.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game on an absurd 47.7 percent from beyond the arc (he hit 13 threes in the first two meetings alone). Those numbers are up from his season-long averages of 14.0/3.4/2.0 on 39.1 percent from three.

Colin Ward-Henninger of CBS Sports acknowledged this big-game storyline, but undervalues the matchup compared to some others on Christmas, for various reasons. He ranks it as the fourth-most exciting game of the holiday (out of five).

"Klay Thompson back in the Bay is always a special occasion, but there's also a chance that these teams will be ... not that good?" Ward-Henninger writes. "The Warriors lit the league on fire after acquiring Jimmy Butler last season, but there's no telling whether they can keep that going with an aging roster and no meaningful offseason additions -- not yet, at least.

"Not to mention that this will be potential franchise savior Cooper Flagg's first Christmas Day appearance, and seeing how he and Anthony Davis mesh will be intriguing. Overall a fun matchup, but it just doesn't stack up to the others."

Mavs point guard Kyrie Irving won't be in action as he recovers from a torn ACL, leading to this prediction that Dallas struggles early in the year. Maybe that offers Thompson a greater scoring role ahead of his highly-anticipated game against the Warriors.

Here is a look at the rest of the Christmas Day schedule:

11 a.m. CT: Cleveland Cavaliers at New York Knicks

1:30 p.m: San Antonio Spurs at Oklahoma City Thunder

7 p.m: Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Lakers (a potential Kevin Durant-LeBron James swan song, we suppose, is a good enough replacement here)

9:30 p.m: Minnesota Timberwolves at Denver Nuggets

The Mavericks open the season on Oct. 22 at home against the San Antonio Spurs - pairing Flagg against No. 2 draft pick Dylan Harper. It's just the second time in NBA history the top two picks will play their first official professional game against one another.