Warriors Prove Point on Christmas Day; Beat Cavs in NBA Finals Rematch

Draymond Green smiled in excitement as he said that the Warriors hadn’t played their best even as they beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 89-83 in a slugfest on Christmas Day.

Stephen Curry’s greatness as a basketball player can be measured by his record-setting shooting numbers that are changing the game. “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 32nd straight regular-season home game. The defending champions maintained their edge on Cleveland by limiting the Cavs to 32-percent shooting. It was only the second time all season that the Warriors scored less than 100 points, and 89 points is over 25 points below their season average. “That just trickled down to everyone else, and we missed out on a great opportunity”. Steph Curry did. Curry joins Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Larry Bird as the only basketball players in history to earn the honor. Still, anyone who paid attention to the past six months of chatter on this topic expected to hear at least some preening once these two teams finally met. Instead, they took the more-reasoned route.

“We gave ourselves a chance”, James said. “If the shots are not falling, we can always control how we play on the defensive end and that’s what we did tonight”.

LeBron James scored 25 points to lead the Cavaliers, who had won their previous six games.

Draymond Green starred for the Warriors as he scored 22 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and dished out seven assists.

While he is the reason Cleveland was in the game for much of the fourth quarter, his ball dominance throughout left his teammates out of rhythm and thus in no position to help him carry the load in the waning moments, making it easy for the Warriors to either force the ball out of his hands, or to bait him into a bad shot attempt.

Warriors center Andrew Bogut, who also played for Jackson, was more pointed in saying he didn’t appreciate what his former coach said. “To keep them to the 80s, they never really got in a flow where they could really attack us”. They barely won the game but at the same time cemented their ownership of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

That was clear in last year’s Finals, when the Warriors limited the Cavaliers to 93.2 points per game in grinding out a 4-2 win in the best-of-7 series. The San Antonio Spurs are the club most mentioned in the same breath as the Warriors, and they lost at Houston despite allowing just 88 points. Curry can consistently make shots from 28 feet out as he is on pace to shatter his own record of 3-pointers made in a season. Against the Cavaliers’ trapping defense, Curry attempted just four three-pointers and made one. Love missed the Finals last summer because of a dislocated shoulder.

They wouldn’t say it publicly, but they relished the thought of taking down one of the elite teams.

I don’t know if you’ll ever see Kyrie (Irving) or myself go 0 for 11 from three ever again. Fortunately for Golden State, Curry returned to the game later that quarter.

Walton said he is always concerned when his star has any injury but Curry said this will not be a long-term issue.

“I’m kind of mad at Scott for calling that foul”, Green said in jest, “because I would have been on the highlights with that if he didn’t call it. It may still make the highlight reel”.

Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade combined for 49 points as the Miami Heat downed the New Orleans Pelicans 94-88 in overtime.