Warriors outlast Suns; finish battling LeBron and Durant for holidays

Chase Center had plenty of star power for the Christmas season thanks to Steph, KD, and Bron Bron!

Whew, the Golden State Warriors just survived a holiday gauntlet of LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers and Kevin Durant’s Phoenix Suns. After losing to a damned layup to the Lakers on Christmas Day, the Warriors struck back against the Suns last night to bring some good vibes to Chase Center.

For Bay Area fans watching in person or from afar, these holiday treats were another reminder of the entertainment power of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and LeBron James. That trio just dominated the Olympic Games in Paris last summer on their way to a gold medal for Team USA, and it’s been a wonderful yuletide treat watching them compete in Chase Center over the last week.

I mean, let’s not forget that the NBA’s golden era of the late 2010s might one day be remembered as the Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and LeBron James Experience. These three titans went well beyond just playing the game... they warped it into an experience that we hadn’t seen before.

These guys carried the torch in the post-Kobe Bryant era and kept it lit. Each in his own way was a singular force, embodying a different axis of basketball greatness. Together, they defined an era that was equal parts dominance, drama, and dazzling display of skills that felt more mythic than mortal.

Because we’re a Golden State Warriors blog, let’s start with Steph aka UNANIMOUS, the game’s disruptor-in-chief. Steph didn’t just shoot threes; he broke basketball’s collective brain. In a league long obsessed with size and physicality, Steph emerged as the skinny joyful assassin who mastered spacing and rhythm.

His dominance didn’t start in the paint like hoopers of yesteryear, his started once he crossed half court. And it wasn’t just what he did—it was how he did it. The shimmying, the logo bombs, the impish grins that turned opponents into memes. Curry made you believe basketball could be fun and fatal.

Then there’s KD, the otherworldly cheat code. Durant was basketball’s answer to the impossible: a seven-footer who dribbles like a guard and shoots like an assassin. He was also unable to answer “can KD win a title with the team that drafted him” like Curry did.

When KD joined forces with Curry and the Warriors, it was like Thanos adding the final Infinity Stone. The league went from fiercely competitive to “THEY CHEATIN!”. It’s hard to overstate just how unfair the Curry-Durant tandem was; they operated like a basketball symphony, blending KD’s cold-blooded precision with Steph’s chaotic brilliance.

But Durant’s story was always complicated by the subtext that basketball narrators pumped out: was he yearning for validation? Was he the best? Could he escape LeBron’s shadow? Could he even escape Curry’s? To a lot of folks, he was a savant chasing not just rings but respect, and that tension followed him wherever he went.

Speaking of shadows—LeBron James loomed over the league like a benevolent god-king, even as Curry and Durant stole headlines. For over a decade, LeBron was the standard. The chosen one. The guy whose greatness had been preordained since he was a teenager. He was an unstoppable force—a freight train in transition, a basketball savant who could read defenses like they were children’s books.

He was Atlas holding up Cleveland’s title hopes and Miami’s dynastic expectations. But eventually in the Curry-Durant era, LeBron slowly pivoted from conqueror to survivor. Every Finals matchup between LeBron and the Warriors felt like a philosophical debate: would teamwork, shooting, and joy (Steph ((and Durant later on)) triumph over raw talent and legacy (LeBron)?

Their rivalries didn’t just shape seasons; they defined the narrative arcs of their careers. Steph’s Warriors were LeBron’s eternal nemesis, delivering crushing Finals defeats that forced LeBron to level up—his Game 7 block in 2016 might be the greatest moment in NBA history for those who despised the Golden Empire.

Durant’s decision to join Golden State, meanwhile, created a superteam so potent it nearly erased competitive balance. It left LeBron battling Goliath without a slingshot. And when KD left the Bay to forge his own legacy in Brooklyn, it felt like a torch was passed—LeBron would claim the 2020 title while Steph and KD plotted their respective comebacks. Curry got the most recent laugh winning in 2022 while KD and King James could only watch from afar.

At their core, though, these three stars were not enemies but reflections of each other: greatness in different guises. Curry was the revolution. Durant was the weapon. LeBron was the legacy. Together, they elevated the league to a realm where every game felt like an event, every playoff series a saga. And as the league evolves, their impact remains a reminder of just how spectacular basketball can be when its brightest stars collide.