The NBA Score: Cleveland Cavaliers at Golden State Warriors leads bumper festive feast

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The big match | Cleveland and Golden State face off for the third Christmas in a row
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James Benge23 December 2017

It’s the most wonderful time of the year if you’re a basketball fan. Whilst footballers huddle away in wait for Boxing Day Christmas Day itself is all about the NBA.

For 70 years the league’s best and brightest have faced off on December 25 and this year is no different, with a duel between two of the league’s top big men, an Eastern Conference grudge match and the battle of last season’s top two players all on the schedule.

All that and the small matter of a re-run of the last three NBA Finals.

Standard Sport previews all of the games below, starting with the big one…

Cleveland Cavaliers at Golden State Warriors – 8pm UK time

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Four years into the great sporting rivalry of the age there’s no sense of franchise fatigue setting in on the box-office rivalry between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors.

For the third Christmas in a row these two titans will face off. The title will not be decided but both clubs can lay down a marker for the coming six months and a season that, in all likelihood, ends in these two facing off in the Finals.

They’re having to get there the hard way. The Cavs began the season losing six of their first 10, struggling to integrate off-season additions Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose and playing with a complete lack of fluidity. LeBron James was somehow getting better in his 14th season but even that could only carry them so far.

Meanwhile the Warriors might not have endured an early season slump but the injury bug has bit hard. Stephen Curry will not play on Christmas Day whilst Draymond Green and Kevin Durant have struggled for fitness.

Aside from that after reaching three straight finals with the Cavaliers, two of which ended in victory, raising their energy levels for another 100-odd game season can be a challenge.

“It's just going to be more difficult,” head coach Steve Kerr admits of title defence number two, the first of which ended in that unforgettable defeat to Cleveland in the 2016 Finals. “I felt that as a player in Chicago way back in the '90s [where he won three straight titles].

“Year three was much more difficult than year one, and that's what we're facing now, just the wear and tear of the journey. As long as we can win games while guys are out, we're confident that they're going to actually be healthy and will be ready to go for the playoffs.”

For a side with a 25-6 record at the time of writing the Warriors have been digging themselves several holes on the way to what ought to have been regulation wins. As veteran David West puts it the reigning champions are having to deal with teams raising their game night after night.

He told Standard Sport: “We're getting everybody's best shot. Every team is gearing up to play their best game of the year against us. We're learning.

“As crazy as it sounds, we're defending champs but we know we have a lot of work to do in terms of trying to get back to the top. Teams have gotten better. Obviously, teams have made some changes.

“So we're in a position where we just know that we're going to get everybody's best shot, and we're having fun defending the title.”

Will the fun stop with Cleveland? For all that the Cavaliers are improving they still don’t yet have the look of a team that could go the stretch with Golden State in a playoff series unless they can somehow stop the three-point barrage. The building-blocks are there but Isaiah Thomas – still recovering from a hip injury – could find it tough going on defence whilst Jae Crowder hasn’t yet proven to be the same defensive menace he was in Boston.

That doesn’t stop the Cavaliers bringing a bit of magic to Christmas night, just as they did last year when they won 109-108 at home. Just as was the case last year another victory for Cleveland doesn’t mean they should be favourites for the title but it might at least give the rest of the league hope that the Warriors juggernaut can be stopped in 2018.

Philadelphia 76ers at New York Knicks – 5pm

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When the season began there was a temptation to ask what, other than its major market status, justified the Knicks being handed another Christmas Day game. They’d traded away their star scorer, Carmelo Anthony, and even the drama quotient seemed to be on the slide after team president Phil Jackson had been shown the exit door. Kristaps Porzingis was a star-in-waiting, but how long would that wait be?

Not long at all. The Unicorn, already a defensive terror, has blossomed as the leading man in a surprisingly competitive Knicks side who look him battling with the 76ers and others for one of the last few playoff spots. Porzingis’ tussle with fellow big man Joel Embiid should make for a yuletide treat to kick off Christmas in style. If we’re lucky these may be the early rounds of a bout for Eastern Conference supremacy that could define the next decade.

Washington Wizards at Boston Celtics – 10:30pm

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There’s nothing that says Christmas quite like bickering but if you’d rather be a spectator than a participant this time around why not sit back and enjoy the Wizards and Celtics at each other’s throats once more?

A fledgling NBA rivalry burst into life in the last 12 months as two of the top contenders out East slugged it out over 11 games in the post and regular season. The Celtics got the victory when it counted, edging the semi-finals 4-3, and you can expect a Wizards team known to be chippy to hold a grudge, even though Boston has largely overhauled their roster.

Those changes saw the Celtics swap out one superstar point guard for another – Isaiah Thomas being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Kyrie Irving – and retain only one starter, Al Horford, but retain their breathless intensity.

Washington have largely stood pat, perhaps explaining why they are seven games off East leaders Boston, but who could blame them with that phenomenal backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal, both of whom will be itching to lay down a marker ahead of what seems to be an inevitable reunion in another classic playoff series.

Houston Rockets at Oklahoma City Thunder – 1am

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The two big movers of the off-season face off, but there’s only one team who look to be true contenders for glory come the summer months. Whilst Oklahoma City’s form has picked up somewhat over recent weeks the trio of Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony still look well short of the sum of their parts.

Westbrook seems too tame, too eager to please (never critiques that would have been laid at his door in last year’s MVP season), George looks to be unsure of his role whilst Anthony may just be past his peak.

As for Houston, they have hit new heights even with their major summer signing, future Hall of Famer Chris Paul, having been sidelined with injuries. James Harden is a clear MVP contender, their defence is performing way above expectations and even the Warriors are taking note of an explosive offense that shoots a record number of threes, surely the best way of wrestling the title from Golden State.

“They’re playing this year,” admits Golden State guard Klay Thompson. “I mean, they’re in first place right now, so it’s unfamiliar for us to be behind them, but it pushes us to get even better.

“And Chris Paul and James Harden, I mean, it’s one of the best if not the best backcourt in the game right now just because they’re such great playmakers. They both can shoot the ball. They don’t really have any weaknesses.”

In action after the Warriors and Cavaliers go head-to-head it would be no surprise to see the Rockets put in the sort of performance that reminds us that this season is a three horse race.

Minnesota Timberwolves at Los Angeles Lakers – 3:30am

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Of course the NBA’s most iconic name – with apologies to the Celtics – had to be on the Christmas Day schedule. And whilst the Lakers home game against the Timberwolves is not the same battle between title contenders as the night’s main events it may well be in the near future.

Los Angeles’ young core is on the right track, as Lakers legend James Worthy explains: “Obviously Lonzo Ball is a rookie, he has a lot on his hands being the leader on the floor, but I think Brandon Ingram has shown through his work ethic and through his practising, his abilities and what he could be.

“So right now, I don’t think there is a leader. I think Kuzma is an outstanding rookie, probably one of the most exciting in the NBA this year, but I think the leadership qualities will come as the team develops.”

Making that next step without the sort of superstar talent they are hunting in next summer’s free agency – James, George – is easier said than done.

Minnesota snagged that player last summer, trading for Jimmy Butler to provide veteran leadership and a winning mentality to complement former No.1 picks Karl-Anthony Towns and Jimmy Butler.

Their three-point shooting has been a worry all year long, as have the brutal expectations of head coach Tom Thibodeau, and could well be exploited by a Lakers team who, when they click, can swarm you with length and energy.

Catch all five NBA Christmas Day games from 5pm live on BT Sport and via NBA LEAGUE PASS at www.nba.tv

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