Warriors-Cavs draws nearly 11 million viewers on Christmas

While much is made of Curry and Klay Thompson (for good reason) both in the Finals and on Friday it’s the peripheral players that have made the difference for the Warriors over the Cavs, with players like Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston doing everything that’s asked of them while the Cavs’ secondary players continually d’oh their way into mediocrity. “We just showed our versatility in trying to win in different ways”. LeBron James, 30, caught a Warriors fan calling him a crybaby in the middle of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors game on December 25.

And from a Christmas standpoint, the game was a nice gift to the Warriors’ fans, a signature nationally-televised show starring their favorite team on the NBA’s biggest regular season day.

Meanwhile, the Cavilers dropped to 19-8, snapping their six game winning streak they had coming to Oracle Arena.

However, it’s tough to exact revenge on a team that you beat in the previous NBA Finals. With the attitude that we appreciated because like a Michael Jordan or Shaquille O’Neal, or Kobe Bryant, you know, just a cutthroat nature.

Bosh scored 30 points on 11 of 25 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Wade finished with 19 points, six rebounds and four assists.

By the time the buzzer rang, Green had contributed 10 points to the Warriors scoreboard and Golden State led the Cavilers 28-19.

James responded with a pair of dunks and a blocked shot on Thompson before Love’s tip-in made the score 81-77 with slightly more than two minutes to play.

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

“Tonight our defense was absolutely unbelievable for all 48 minutes”, Warriors center Andrew Bogut said. A little bit of a sloppy game, we couldn’t get our rhythm and credit them for that.

The defending champs scored a season low in points against a healthy Cavaliers squad and still won in a rematch between foes in the NBA Finals. Despite the Cavilers outscoring the Warriors 23 to 17, they only held the lead once as the half ended with Golden State up 45-42.

Friday’s game started a Miami’s first and only stretch of four contests in five days this season. C Timofey Mozgov had zero points on 0-for-5 shooting. G Leandro Barbosa left the game with a sprained left shoulder. With all the talks that Golden State was lucky for facing an injury depleted Cavaliers’ – the Warriors took it personally and gave the Irving + Love powered Cavs a run for their money with an 89-83 win in their own backyard.

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

“The way that I play has a lot of skill but is stuff that if you go to the YMCA or rec leagues or church leagues around the country, everybody wants to shoot, everybody wants to handle the ball, make creative passes and stuff like that”, the 6-foot-3 Curry said.

Curry went back to the locker room in the second quarter to get his strained right calf re-taped. However, Irving is only three games back form tearing his knee cap in the finals.

“Obviously any injury Steph has is very concerning, but he said he felt good”, Walton said.

“Throughout the season, there’s going to be bumps and bruises you’ve got to deal with”, Curry said.