Kevin Durant ready to dominate for the Nets on Christmas Day

Texas basketball-ex and Brooklyn Nets superstar forward Kevin Durant gets to lead his team on Christmas Day to face the Boston Celtics on the road.

At least around the sports landscape, an annual tradition around the holiday season is catching the NBA on Christmas Day slate of games. Year in and year out, Texas basketball fans can catch some of their favorite former Longhorns in action in the NBA on Christmas Day. And this season, some of the most significant former Longhorns in action on Christmas are Brooklyn Nets superstar forward Kevin Durant, New Orleans Pelicans second-year big man Jaxson Hayes, and Boston Celtics big man Tristan Thompson, among others.

All eyes will fall on Durant as he plays in just his second game in a Nets uniform since signing a max contract with Brooklyn during the 2019 offseason. Durant sat out all of last season as he was recovering from an achilles tear he suffered during the 2019 playoff run with the Golden State Warriors.

Moreover, Durant wound up making his Nets debut (and what was the first game of the NBA regular season slate) on Dec. 25 in an impressive 125-99 convincing win over his former team at home. The Nets dominated superstar point guard Stephen Curry and the Warriors. Golden State was playing without star shooting guard Klay Thompson in their season debut.

The dynamic star pairing of KD and point guard Kyrie Irving came to the forefront in the Nets regular season tip off. Kyrie was healthy for a little more than half of last season, but this is the first time that these two are getting to shine on the same floor as teammates.

In his Nets regular season debut, KD was very efficient to help his team beat the Warriors. He registered 22 points, on 7-of-16 shooting from the field, 1-of-2 from beyond the arc, and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. To go along with his 22 points, he racked up five rebounds, three assists, a whopping three steals, and one block.

KD and the Nets are set to take on the Boston Celtics and the star duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, with tip off set for 4 p.m. CT, in their NBA on Christmas Day game. Both the Nets and Celtics enter this game with a record of 1-0. The Celtics knocked off back-to-back MVP and superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks in their opener on Dec. 23.

Two former Longhorns, KD and Thompson, will face each other in this key Nets-Celtics Christmas Day showdown. A few of the other highlighting games later in the NBA on Christmas Day slate includes the Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers-Denver Nuggets games.