Warriors maintain upper hand vs. Cavs with Christmas win

The Warriors opened the game at 28-19 after the first quarter but the Cavaliers stormed back in the second quarter outscoring Golden State, 23-17.

Draymond Green had 22 points and 15 rebounds as the Golden State Warriors toppled the Cleveland Cavaliers 89-83 in their National Basketball Association finals rematch on Christmas Day. “We just show our versatility and try to win different ways”.

Stephen Curry added 19 points and Klay Thompson had 18 for the Warriors, who improved to 28-1 by winning their 32d straight regular-season home game.

LeBron James played 95 percent of all possible minutes and scored 38 percent of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ points in the 2015 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors.

The Warriors were held under 100 points at home for the first time in more than a year in the regular season, however it happened five times in the playoffs.

“I’m a guy that gets hacked sometimes to go to the free-throw line and you have to knock them down, if you can go one for two at those points then good – it’s (hacking a poor shooter) an interesting one, more and more teams are starting to do it,”Bogut said”. “I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to want to go out there and play well”. That they had their six-game profitable streak snapped.

“Well we’re 27-1”, he said. “It wasn’t going right for us – Chris had it going to keep us afloat – but at the end, I think it just came down to getting some great stops and we got some timely buckets”.

The Cavaliers were short-handed when they lost the final to the Warriors in six games, missing power forward Kevin Love the entire series with a shoulder injury and losing point guard Kyrie Irving to a knee injury late in the first game.

But having both of those players healthy for the rematch did little to help Cleveland.

Green extended the scoring run with a 25-foot three-point shot from the top of the key, and Curry furthered the Warriors’ effort with a pair of free throws and a driving layup that turned into a three-point play, as he was fouled by Dellavedova in the act of shooting.

James shot an air ball from three-point range with 12.7 seconds to play to virtually end Cleveland’s comeback attempt.

Andrew Bogut, previously seen against the Cavaliers sitting out in the Finals, started and bolstered the Warriors’ defense with four blocked shots and seven rebounds.

New Orleans’ largest first-half deficit was 13 points, which was trimmed to 42-38 going into intermission after Davis’ follow-slam closed the scoring.

BULLS 105, THUNDER 96 (at Oklahoma City) – Jimmy Butler scored 23 points and Pau Gasol had 21 points and 13 rebounds for Chicago.

Anthony Davis had a big Christmas debut with 29 points, 15 rebounds, three blocks, four assists and four steals, but Chris Bosh’s 30 points and 10 rebounds helped the Heat come up with a 94-88 win over the Pelicans. He also collected nine rebounds and seven assists.

The Cavs won the battle in the paint (46-46), and were only minus-10 in fastbreak points (14-4) as they successfully slowed the pace to a crawl.

Golden State, which owns the best record in the league, won despite a 6-for-15 shooting effort from star guard Stephen Curry, who finished with 19 points. That’s the best record in National Basketball Association history for any player who has played at least 10 Christmas games.

Harden finished with 20 points and nine assists to push the Rockets to their seventh consecutive home victory. While LeBron and Kyrie may be the two who are getting the most credit for the team’s success thus far, it is tough to discount what big man Kevin Love has contributed this season.