NBA Christmas: Warriors-Cavaliers Finals rematch headlines 5-game holiday slate

The Warriors vs. Cavaliers thriller on Sunday was the most-streamed NBA Christmas game ever, and tied the highest overnight rating at 5.9 percent in the past 12 years in the early window (2:30 p.m. ET), according to an ESPN press release.

Cleveland beat Golden State 109-108 in a rematch of last year’s 2016 NBA Finals, where the Warriors now infamously botched a 3-1 lead to lose to LeBron James. The game on Christmas was the two teams’ first meeting since Game 7, and it peaked with 11.8 million viewers late in the fourth quarter. The game averaged 10.1 million viewers on the day.

It has been nearly three years since Kevin Durant beat LeBron James in a head-to-head matchup, a streak that was extended on Christmas Day when the Cavaliers topped Golden State and the newly acquired Durant on a Kyrie Irving buzzer beater. That makes Durant 4-18 in his career now against LeBron James.

It’s not really KD’s fault. He averages 29.4 points when playing James on 48 percent shooting, to go with nearly seven rebounds and about 3.5 assists. Still, his teams consistently lose to James’. It happened six straight times to start his career (although KD did beat the Cavaliers his rookie season in a game James didn’t play in), and James is now on a five-game win streak against Durant.

Richard Jefferson could be retired right now, taking his $109 million career earnings to Cabo and watching the NBA’s Christmas Day games from the beach. He said that was his plan in the heat of the moment after last year’s finals, announcing his retirement on Fox Sports Ohio in the postgame locker room.

Not even days later, Jefferson hinted that his proclamation might have been premature, egging on a crowd of championship parade goers by saying, “If you guys want me to play one more year, I’ll play one more year.” And so here he is, signing a two-year deal with Cleveland over the summer, playing 29 minutes against the Golden State Warriors and dunking all over them.

Kyrie Irving might as well be the Grim Reaper at this point: with his customary black cloak exchanged for tattered Warriors jerseys he’s been collecting, and his scythe replaced by a game-winning jump shot. Six months after beating the Warriors in Game 7, he did it again on Christmas Day, nailing a 13-foot turnaround jumper with three seconds left and celebrating with the meanest of mugs.

We all know Cavaliers’ 109-108 win over Golden State on Sunday doesn’t really mean anything, not with both teams being overwhelming favorites to face each other in the NBA Finals this coming summer. But Irving’s continued crusade against the Warriors isn’t just entertainment — it shows how high the Cavaliers can soar, and why they can actually keep up with Golden State even after they added some dude named Kevin Durant.

The Lakers finally ended their 11-game losing streak against the Clippers, and what better time to do it than on Christmas night while on a national stage. The Lakers losing streak dated all the way back to opening night of the 2013-2014 season.

With Blake Griffin already out for Sunday’s game, Chris Paul also missed the game after a confusing 20 minutes leading up to the contest.

As part of a Christmas Day NBA lineup where the Cavaliers and Warriors, Knicks and Celtics, and Spurs and Bulls went head-to-head, Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook was sure to supply presents for his fans.

Now, if you were banking on Russell Westbrook picking up his 15th triple-double during the holiday season, you’re out of luck. Oklahoma City’s Most Valuable Player of the Year candidate fell just three rebounds shy.

The Christmas Day basketball schedule can be likened to a restaurant menu, and the Cleveland Cavaliers-Golden State Warriors NBA Finals rematch was the main course. But that doesn’t devalue the menu’s other offerings, which included a fun-to-watch Spurs-Bulls evening matchup.

San Antonio built a 26-8 first quarter lead and barely looked back until Chicago tied the game in the third quarter. But like any Gregg Popovich-coached team, the Spurs got back to basics and dimed themselves out of a late-game Bulls comeback attempt.

Breakups are almost always ugly, and that rings true in the NBA, too. One of the more well-documented NBA divorces happened over the summer, when Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City — and his co-star Russell Westbrook — for the Golden State Warriors, the same team that eliminated the Thunder in the playoffs.

After Westbrook knocks down a deep corner three, he darts off to the locker room before screaming what sounds like “Thank you, Kyrie.” If that interpretation of his comment holds true, Westbrook was referring to the same Kyrie Irving who drilled a game-winner over Klay Thompson in Cleveland’s NBA Finals rematch against the Warriors on Christmas.

The Cavaliers came back and got the lead late in the game against the Warriors in the fourth quarter. Sounds familiar, right? Well, now the Warriors have Kevin Durant who can take over a game when they need him. That’s what the Warriors attempted in the last possession with only seconds remaining in the game.

But no one counted on Richard Jefferson — who was apparently gifted the fountain of youth for Christmas — to become the lockdown defender that the Cavaliers needed. OK, maybe he also tripped Durant in the process.

Richard Jefferson might be 36 years old, but that doesn’t mean his athleticism has faded. And if you thought he was starting to lose some of the pop he had as a star perimeter player years ago, he proved you wrong on Christmas Day.

Jefferson drove baseline and threw a vicious one-handed tomahawk all over Klay Thompson in Cleveland’s 109-108 holiday win over the Golden State Warriors.

This is why we love Warriors versus Cavaliers. This is why we love the NBA. On Christmas Day, Cleveland and Golden State together created a basketball masterpiece, and it hardly mattered who won.

The Cavaliers did, just like they did in last year’s finals, thanks to Kyrie Irving’s turnaround jumper with seconds left. It was a beautiful shot that completed a 14-point fourth-quarter comeback against Golden State, and Kevin Durant was knocked down (or tripped) on the Warriors’ final chance leading to his last-second attempt being way off. Cleveland took it 109-108 in the Christmas headliner.

Kyrie Irving has ice in his veins. We knew that. And on Christmas Day, Irving solidified Cleveland’s dominance as the powerhouse team in the NBA.

With just over three seconds remaining in an NBA Finals rematch against the Golden State Warriors, Irving drilled a super-contested game-winning jump shot over Klay Thompson, giving the Cavaliers a 109-108 lead that would later prove insurmountable.

What did we ever do to deserve LeBron James? Here he is, getting knocked down after a made layup to make that game 55-52 and getting up anyway to chase down a Zaza Pachulia block.

That he’s chasing Andre Iguodala down half of the court is even funnier. Of course Iguodala’s not going to try this again. Here’s what he was probably thinking.

The Cavaliers and the Warriors is the real Christmas present for you, and this sequence is a stocking stuffer.

My favorite things about this sequence, ranked.

This is the Boston Celtics squad we all envisioned this offseason. In a 119-114 win against the New York Knicks on Christmas Day, Boston beat the Knicks by fourteen in the second quarter and led the entire second half to earn a huge win with standings implications.

It briefly looked like Boston might coast to the win, but a flurry of Knicks scoring prevented that. The Knicks had trailed the entire second half until a Carmelo Anthony layup tied it at 112 with 1:06 left in the game. The Celtics led 110-101 with three minutes left, but Kristaps Porzingis buried two threes and a three-point play on a fast break to slice into the deficit.

Did you hear the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Finals last season after the Golden State Warriors blew a 3-1 lead? Well, the Cavaliers were worried the Warriors had missed that bit of news, so they left this door open right down the hall from the visiting locker room before the two played in Cleveland on Christmas day.

But hold up, wait. What’s that on LeBron’s finger?

The New York Knicks are Kristaps Porzingis’ team already now, but Al Horford got the best of him on this play.

Oof. Horford had a free lane and went straight to the rim, avoiding Porzingis and his 1.8 blocks per game. Honestly, I like this screenshot even better than the dunk.

Christmas puts us all in a giving spirit, even professional basketball players preparing to play an important game with playoff implications. Here’s Carmelo Anthony, helping provide an emotional moment before the Knicks’ game by gifting a car through his Garden of Dreams foundation.

Anthony gave the car to Jarell Lara, a 17-year-old who just finished 18 months of chemo with a rare form of cancer called Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis. Lara’s in the video wearing a fantastic ‘Jarell’ jersey. This is such a great moment for Jarell and his family, and an even better way to kick off basketball today on Christmas.

Sunday is Christmas, which means the NBA season really starts for all those who have been paying too much attention to other sports. To help you folks catch up, we dialed our friend Michael Pina of a zillion websites to preview the five-game slate.

Among the topics discussed:

The NBA makes Christmas the best basketball holiday, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Especially for those who celebrate and have young children. Five marquee games means about 13 hours of basketball in 16 non-sleep hours. In some cases, it’s too much. We’re here to help you balance time with your basketball family and your real family.

(Apologies in advance for the U.S.-centricism with regards to time zones.)

Christmas is pegged as the most wonderful time of the year, and what makes a holiday better than NBA basketball? The league is continuing its tradition of special edition Christmas jerseys with its 2017 line for the 10 teams playing on Christmas Day.

The jerseys mimic last Christmas’ design, with a tilted cursive print on the front. This year’s Christmas Day lineup is a slate of games for fans to enjoy, including a Finals rematch (Cavaliers vs. Warriors), a geographic rivalry (Knicks vs. Celtics), the battle for Los Angeles (Lakers vs. Clippers), and two fun-to-watch matchups (Bulls vs. Spurs and Timberwolves vs. Thunder).

Good morning. Merry Christmas. Let’s basketball.

WHY NOT? Paul Flannery has a special Sunday Shootaround focused on Russell Westbrook and his philosophy. It’s interesting that Westbrook loves nothing more than to talk about his teammates, despite he himself being at the center of everything the Thunder do. Flanns also has NBA Christmas conversation starters, the quotes of the week and a tremendous GIF courtesy of art enthusiast Seth Rosenthal. Check it out.

Christmas is here, and the NBA delivered presents all across the country with a five-game lineup of basketball headlined by the game the world wants to see: an NBA Finals rematch between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors.

LeBron James may be shorthanded without J.R. Smith, who’s out three months recovering from surgery on his broken finger. But The King’s supporting cast of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love has thrived as co-stars on Cleveland’s set. The lights won’t shine brighter than on Christmas when Stephen Curry and the Warriors travel to Cleveland.

When Kristaps Porzingis was drafted, we thought he’d be a project. He instead started most of his rookie season season. Coming into his second year, we expected steady improvement. Instead, he’s become a full-fledged star already.

The Knicks have quickly realized this and adjusted their original plans. Porzingis, and not Carmelo Anthony, is the new hub of New York’s offense. The pick and roll, and not Phil Jackson’s beloved Triangle, is the team’s dominant offensive system. And because of that, New York is pushing for home-court advantage in a crowded Eastern Conference.