LeBron James sad to play Christmas

The big one of the 2015 NBA Christmas schedule is the first rematch of the NBA Finals, as LeBron James takes a fully healthy Cleveland Cavaliers team to play on the road against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, who have lost just once this season.

The Cleveland Cavaliers (19-7) are seeking for a monumental win in today’s game as they were beaten in the NBA Finals last season by the same team.

With Stephen Curry slightly hobbled by a calf strain and not shooting his best, without an injured Harrison Barnes to help guard LeBron James, the Warriors still won Friday. He only had 13 points and two assists for the game, but he showed flashes of the brilliance we have come to expect. “We just show our versatility and try to win different ways”. Instead of doing it with 3-pointers, defending champion Golden State maintained its edge over Cleveland by limiting the Cavaliers to 32 percent shooting.

In a grinding contest that produced their lowest-scoring game this season, the Warriors improved to 14-0 at home this season with their 32nd overall home victory in a row.

“It’s good to practice and get experience in that type of game, as well, where it’s low-scoring, getting stops, knocking down free throws and executing in the half court”, Warriors interim coach Luke Walton said”.

Perhaps the biggest conclusion we can draw is that small ball is greater than bully ball.

James led the Cavs with 25 points and contributed nine rebounds, but shot 10-of-26 and was a brutal 4-of-9 from the foul line.

“We’ve got a chance for a regular season sweep, and they’ve got a chance to tie it up 1-1”, Green said.

“We play like that defensively, we’re going to be a very tough team to beat”, James said.

“When you’re 28-1 and you’re not near playing well, that’s exciting because we know how to get to that point, and we know we’ll reach that point”, Green said. Love had only 10 points and was 0-for-5 from 3-point range to go with his 18 rebounds.

That, of course, was without Kevin Love for the entire series and without Kyrie Irving for all but the first four quarters.

After Curry pushed the lead back to 85-80 with 51.6 seconds left, the Warriors iced the win with two free throws apiece by Green and defensive ace Andre Iguodala. A little bit of a sloppy game, we couldn’t get our rhythm and credit them for that. They will finally meet on Christmas Day in a much anticipated rematch of last season’s Finals. But there’s also Klay Thompson who just might be the best shooting guard in the league (19.3 points per game) and especially Draymond Green, who can do it all on both ends of the floor, and the Warriors are especially unsafe when he’s playing as the center.

In other Christmas games, Jimmy Butler scored 23 points to power Chicago over Oklahoma City 105-96 and Chris Bosh’s 30 points sparked Miami over New Orleans 94-88 in over-time.

Cavaliers: Visit Portland on Saturday. Irving (13 points) shot 4-of-15 and Love (10 points, 18 rebounds) was 5-of-16. She scored an electrifying three goals in 16 minutes during the 5-2 title win over Japan.

San Antonio dominated the boards in winning 108-83 at Minnesota; their 22nd double-digit win this season.

Josh Smith was benched against the Thunder while Austin Rivers (ankle) and Paul Pierce didn’t play. Curry finished the rally with a 29-foot three-pointer that gave the Warriors a 24-15 lead with 2:15 to play in the quarter.