With Christmas Day just around the corner, the NBA preliminary schedule of the 2022-23 season is official. According to sources, the defending champions of 2021-22 Golden State Warriors will face Memphis Grizzles on 25th December in San Francisco at 8:00 PM ET (Eastern Time).
Memphis at Golden State is another Christmas Day game on the NBA’s preliminary schedule for the 2022-23 season that is on course to be made official this coming week, league sources tell me.
More NBA from me: https://t.co/LGN9cVpeGP https://t.co/GpkZxsU8NI
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) August 13, 2022
This will be the first match for the Memphis Grizzlies franchise to be on the Christmas schedule. Rumors came that both teams were in a heated rivalry from the 2020-21 season when the Warriors eliminated the Grizzlies in the 2022 Western Conference Semifinals.
To know more in detail let’s take a look back at how all of this started.
How did Draymond Green and Ja Morant set up the Warriors vs Grizzles game for Christmas?
All of this started after the GSW win over the Celtics in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. After the win, Grizzlies forward Jaren Jacked Jr., commented on Twitter using the Warriors slogan “strength in numbers.”
Strength in numbers 👏🏾
— JJJ (@jarenjacksonjr) March 29, 2022
Reacting to this, Klay Thompson responded on Twitter with his comment on Jaren’s tweet.
Klay Thompson 🗣🔥
pic.twitter.com/JU1YmaWQGz— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) June 17, 2022
To this, another Grizzlies player Ja Morant responded by saying – “got a lot of real estate,” letting Thompson and the Warriors know that he feels he’s living in their heads rent-free.”
prompting a heated verbal barrage on social media.
Ja speaks on Klay calling out Jaren Jackson Jr.
The Grizzlies taking up property in some Warriors’ heads 👀 pic.twitter.com/DLmhbxjUPr
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 17, 2022
Later, Draymond Green jumped into the conversation and shot back at Ja Morant’s comment.
We traded that real estate in @JaMorant the property value was higher in Boston https://t.co/X7Du6zSiZF
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) June 19, 2022
Shortly after this, Morant reverted to the comment made.
I’m Spinnin 🤐 https://t.co/MbmW1QhpUe
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) June 19, 2022
But this was not the first time that Draymond and Morant were seen in such a situation. It was during the semifinals when Draymond posted a GIF of Morant sitting injured on the bench that looked like Curry’s signature four-point play celebration. Later he also gave a reference to a Disney Channel on the matter.
With the remarks going back and forth, they challenged for a matchup between GSW and Grizzlies on the day of Christmas. But the two of them were unknown of the fact that their words would become a reality soon. After the news of the match came, Morant commented on Twitter.
we got what we wanted dray. 😤 @Money23Green https://t.co/fsJPffUBii pic.twitter.com/ti8PAdtMyC
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) August 13, 2022
With the game set on the day of Christmas, everyone will be celebrating and gunning for their favorite teams. It will be quite exciting to see whether the Grizzlies make a strong comeback or be defeated by the Warriors.