We ranked all 24 games in the Warriors-Cavaliers rivalry

On Christmas Day, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors meet for the 25th time since LeBron James went home and since the Warriors emerged as one of the league’s greatest dynasties (3 p.m., ABC, WatchESPN).

This may be the league’s best rivalry, with the biggest stakes, since at least the 1980s. There has never been three consecutive Finals matchups between two teams, after all.

There have been blowouts and boring basketball, make no mistake about that. But any moment where LeBron and Draymond Green share the court is interesting, no matter the score. At its best, this series has left us with iconic NBA moments that will be remembered for decades and spoken about with reverence.

In that spirit, I ranked all 24 games that the two teams have played since they ascended to the top of the NBA in 2014.

24. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 112-94 (Jan. 9, 2015)

23. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 126-91 (Jan. 16, 2017)

22. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 132-98 (Jan. 18, 2016)

21. Cavaliers beat Warriors, 110-99 (Feb. 26, 2015)

There’s a theme here — after Christmas, and before the postseason, the Warriors and the Cavaliers games end up becoming uninteresting blowouts. Of these four, the closest margin is on Jan. 9, 2015, where LeBron James didn’t even play while taking his mid-season sabbatical.

No. 22 did lead to the Cavaliers’ shocking decision to fire David Blatt, though. It also featured this.

20. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 103-82 (2015 Finals Game 4)

Golden State allowed Timofey Mozgov to score a game-high 28 points in a real life NBA Finals game, and it’s still a miracle that the basketball gods didn’t immediately cast the Warriors into eternal basketball damnation. It’s an offense to the sport that’s almost unforgivable. Timofey Mozgov, really!

On second thought, maybe this game should be a dozen spots higher for the sheer absurdity alone.

19. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 113-91 (2017 Finals Game 1)

18. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 132-113 (2017 Finals Game 2)

17. Cavaliers beat Warriors, 137-116 (2017 Finals Game 4)

The first two games of the 2017 Finals were a buzzkill. Sure, Cleveland wasn’t done after falling behind 2-0, but we all knew this series wouldn’t be competitive after that. It ended up being great, but it wasn’t competitive.

How can it be great but not competitive? Take Game 4, one of the most ridiculous 48-minute displays of the sport that I’ve ever seen. I wanted to rank it higher, but it really wasn’t a good game, just a ridiculous one. Draymond Green was kicked out, and then unkicked out. Jeff Van Gundy rattled off Kardashian hot takes. Cleveland, meanwhile, scored 137 points while hitting 24 three-pointers. After the game, I described it like this:

But we’ll appreciate this game, because it was just ... dumb. And there are degrees to dumbness, and this was at the very top of it. The fouls made no sense. The technicals didn’t go to the right people. The players wouldn’t stop making ridiculous shots. It wasn’t basketball at its finest — more like, it was basketball with four drinks on a Friday night when everyone is your friend, the music is just right, and all you want is to dance a little at your table because you know the nachos are coming out at any moment now.

Yeah, that’s about right.

16. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 104-89 (2016 Finals Game 1)

15. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 110-77 (2016 Finals Game 2)

14. Cavaliers beat Warriors, 120-90 (2016 Finals Game 3)

13. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 108-97 (2016 Finals Game 4)

These are historic, even if two games were decided by 30 or more points. Game 1 was close, and Games 2 and 3 were dominant performances — once for Golden State, once for Cleveland. Game 4 gave us the infamous Draymond Green nut-tap delivered straight to James’ LeBrons. Even if the games themselves lacked the usual heightened drama, all of this built Golden State’s even more infamous 3-1 lead.

(My favorite under-the-radar thing about that scuffle is Harrison Barnes shooting a practice jump shot right smack in the middle of James and Green screaming at each other, even while the referees and teammates are making sure they don’t charge each other. It’s the most Harrison Barnes thing of all time.)

12. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 105-97 (2015 Finals Game 6)

11. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 89-83 (Dec. 25, 2015)

10. Cavaliers beat Warriors, 96-91 (2015 Finals Game 3)

2015’s Game 6 was a close game, but it never felt like it. Cleveland’s rotation was abysmal: James and J.R. Smith, and then Mozgov, Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert, Matthew Dellavedova, and James Jones. (Thompson played 37 minutes and Mozgov played 33, and now I feel nauseous.)

That’s also why Game 3 is listed so high — because Cleveland had no business winning it, but James had 40 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. It also resulted in this headline, which still feels like some sort of cosmic joke.

As for the Christmas matchup, it was a low key great game that we never talk about. But it gets overshadowed by another Christmas game, which ... hang on. We’re almost there.

9. Cavaliers beat Warriors, 115-101 (2016 Finals Game 6)

James scored 41 points (with 11 assists!) for a second straight game as Cleveland forced a Game 7.

But we don’t need to talk about this. We need to talk about how Stephen Curry, who had spent two full MVP seasons in the spotlight polishing his good guy reputation, getting ejected from the first time in his career after throwing a mouthpiece that hit the son of a Cavaliers minority owner.

Look, I hope we can all appreciate the humor in that — maybe even Curry, now that he’s a couple years removed from it all.

8. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 129-120 (2017 Finals Game 5)

This clinched Golden State’s second title, but I will always remember it as the J.R. Smith game. It doesn’t matter that James dropped 41 while Durant and Curry combined for 73 points — Smith flat out refused to miss. He ended up with 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting, and 7-of-8 behind the arc. It was the only thing that made this game remotely entertaining.

(At least to me, an impartial observer and not a Warriors fan. I’m sure Warriors fans found many things about this game entertaining.)

7. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 108-100 (2015 Finals Game 1)

6. Cavaliers beat Warriors, 95-93 (2015 Finals Game 2)

Weirdly enough, these two bitter rivals have only reached overtime twice, both in the opening two games of the 2015 Finals. James missed a potential game-winner in Game 1, and then Irving was injured three minutes into the extra period.

Given that James proceeded to win two games without Irving, and a rotation demanding heavy minutes from the Dellavedovas and James Joneses of the world, who knows what might have happened if that Game 1 jumper had fallen.

Hilariously, Dellavedova’s free throws after an offensive rebound win Cleveland Game 2, although it was set up by an otherworldly James performance.

5. Cavaliers beat Warriors, 112-97 (2016 Finals Game 5)

Ah, this is where you should go if you ever miss the Irving-James pairing. They both scored 41 points, the first time that a duo has ever scored 40-plus in the same NBA Finals game.

4. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 105-91 (2015 Finals Game 5)

The final score makes it seem like this game wasn’t close, but it was. In fact, with about seven minutes left, Cleveland actually led, and they were within a bucket several times under the five minute mark until Golden State’s shooting finally buckles the injury-ravaged Cleveland squad. The series was tied at two, and it really could have swung either way depending on the results here.

This was also Curry’s best-ever playoff game, as far as I’m concerned.

3. Warriors beat Cavaliers, 118-113 (2017 Finals Game 3)

2. Cavaliers beat Warriors, 109-108 (Dec. 25, 2016)

1. Cavaliers beat Warriors, 93-89 (2016 Finals Game 7)

Kevin Durant will likely never hit a shot more memorable than his Game 3 pull-up three-pointer. That shot, and Game 3, ended the series. We loved Game 4’s ridiculousness and Game 5’s J.R. Smith, but when you look back on the series, Game 3 is the only one that feels important.

It’s strange to put a regular-season game second, but it has to go there. Remember everything that went into this game: The blown 3-1 lead, Cleveland’s first championship, Kevin Durant signing in Golden State, and then the general sense that the NBA had stopped mattering since the Warriors would coast to a Finals victory.

Sure, yes, the Warriors did. But not before we all witnessed what might have been the greatest regular season ever, one that may only be topped by this current regular season. This Christmas Day game was an enormous part of reshaping everyone’s perception — sure, even if the Warriors are better than everyone, this season will still be stupidly fun. And what was more fun than the Cavaliers roaring back to defeat Golden State in the league’s marquee holiday slot?

And then there’s Game 7, which doesn’t require more words, just this video.

I don’t think we’ll ever top this ... but with this rivalry, who knows?