 Here are 7 of the best Christmas Day performances from the last 20 years. First of all I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday. I also wanted to mention that about 3 years ago Dom2k made a very similar video but I thought that in the past 3 years we've seen some pretty heated Christmas Day battles that deserve to be mentioned in a video so this is a little bit different. There's a lot of matchups that happened recently that obviously weren't in his video and these are from the last 20 years. But if you would like to watch Dom's video I'll leave a link to that in the description box down below. But without further ado, if you enjoy these types of videos be sure to subscribe if you're new to the channel for more NBA content every single week. If you want to leave a like that would be very much appreciated. Let's say for Gary 2000 likes for the next video. Keep in mind these are not in any particular order and there are obviously so many Christmas Day games that will be left out so let me know your favourite Christmas Day performance in the comment section down below and let's get it started. 2018, Kyrie Irving 40 points and an overtime win. This to me is an underrated and recent Christmas Day game that had everything. A dominant player, a clutch sequence, a hype crowd and for many it's a recent memory. Kyrie Irving in the clutch is the best version of Kyrie but when you combine clutch and Christmas Kyrie is just different and this won't be the only time Kyrie makes an appearance on this list. We've seen him deliver on Christmas Day as good as Santa but in 2018 the Celtics point guard took it to another level from start to finish. He only had two seasons with the Celtics but when it's Kyrie it will always be memorable. And in 2018 just last season it was two of the best teams from the east battling it out. As Philly went to Boston in a rematch from opening night and by half time the 76ers looked strong but Kyrie finished the first half with 23 of their 57 first half points. He kept it up in the third quarter and when the Celtics needed a hero in the fourth he answered the call. Sending the game into overtime with his clutch basket. With one of the greatest offenders in the game in Jimmy Butler draped all over him. Kyrie put on his Superman cape and took over late. He finished the game with 40 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and his second 40 point performance of the season and the highest scoring Celtic on Christmas Day since Tommy Heinz since 45 in 1961. He showed us why he's one of the clutch players in the league and he gave the fans a show. Number 6 2013 Golden State vs Los Angeles Clippers If you're looking for the beginning of a rivalry between the Clippers and the Warriors I would say that this game lit the fire. This is part of the early stages of the bad blood between the Warriors and the Clippers. Not only did they have the controversy and the fighting the game itself was actually a very good game only one shot in it. This is before the Golden State Warriors became a dynasty and when the Clippers were seen as a likely team that could eventually reach the conference finals and possibly even the NBA finals if they could piece it all together at the right time. But as we all know that didn't eventuate. The game was tested from the start and got worse at the end of the third quarter when Blake Griffin had to be restrained by teammates following a heated exchange with Dreymon Green. Griffin received a technical and Dreymon was ejected for a flagrant foul too after throwing an elbow. But then Blake Griffin was ejected later after receiving two technical fouls. As for the game it was back and forth and then late in the game Chris Paul missed a layup that could have tied the game in the final seconds. Then to end it off the teams continued to exchange words and had to be separated after the game. Mark Jackson said we liked them. Merry Christmas. Number 5 2003 Tracer McGrady vs LeBron James Once again we have two crazy performances by individual players a rookie LeBron James dropping 34 points and a Tracer McGrady who wasn't injured dropping 41 but it was the actual game that was also very intense. It went to overtime and it also had the talent. Yeah this was LeBron James in 2003 and obviously that's his rookie season but you wouldn't know that by watching him. He was terrific in his NBA Christmas debut and he wasn't even a top player of the game. Tracer McGrady who averaged an NBA best 43.3 points per game on Christmas Day lit up LeBron and the Cavaliers for 41 points to pull off a win in overtime and spoil LeBron's first Christmas outing. Keep in mind this is one of the few occasions where we got to witness a healthy McGrady go ahead with another soon to be dominant player in the league. This performance came just one year after McGrady dropped 46 points on the Detroit Pistons in a Christmas Day game in 2002. McGrady went to lead the league in scoring in the 2003 season averaging 32.1 points per game and he dominated 2003 as a whole. Just as he did on Christmas Day getting the win in overtime and putting up some clutch shots. Number 4, 2010 LeBron James triple double and trash talk vs Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. We normally don't see LeBron James trash talk and I made a video on LeBron James and his little amount of trash talk in the past and I spoke about this moment here where he and Kobe Bryant got into it. So if you want to watch that I'll leave a link in the description. But in this moment it was also Christmas and it was also 2010 meaning that this was LeBron James and the Miami Heat's first Christmas Day game together. The Lakers before the 2010 season were seen as unstoppable. They had just come off an NBA championship they had made it to multiple NBA finals but the Miami Heat with their big three show why they were so superior to any other team in the league and why NBA fans really didn't like them because they really were that good. It was a season filled with hatred by the NBA world against LeBron James and the Miami Heat and they were out to spoil everyone's party as Kobe was trying to do to the Miami Heat on Christmas Day but it was LeBron James who put on the show on Christmas. He gave the Heat 27 points, 11 rebounds and 10 steals which were good enough to give the Miami Heat a comfortable win over Kobe and the Lakers. He also joined Oscar Robertson, John Havelichek and Billy Cunningham as the only place in NBA history to record a triple double on Christmas Day and this was before the days where we had Rusty Westbrook and Luca Donta getting triple doubles every single week. It was pretty rare to get a triple double in the league in 2010 but since then we've seen Rusty Westbrook and Draymond Green who would both eventually get triple doubles and join that list of players. Number three, 2008. The Los Angeles Lakers defeating the Boston Celtics in an NBA finals rematch. This was their first meeting since the Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 NBA finals. Finally the Lakers would get their revenge by beating Boston and their 19 game winning streak on Christmas Day. Kobe obviously led the way with 27 points for the Lakers and the Celtics could not overcome their horrible shooting especially Ray Allen who went 3-11 from beyond the arc. The game was also significant because it had Phil Jackson winning his 1,000th NBA game and becoming the fastest NBA coach to reach that milestone. But what goes unnoticed is power of yourselves clutch performance during this game. He scored 7 points in the final 3 minutes to keep the Celtics out of it. Number two, 2004. The Lakers versus the Heat. This game meant so much in so many aspects. It's borderline impossible to top this Christmas Day game. You had Shaq and Kobe finally meeting each other for the first time since Shaq's departure from LA. You had the Heat looking like a finals contender with a dominant Shaq and a Dwayne Wade who was young but definitely eager to show the league what he could do. You had the media all in a frenzy about what would happen between Shaq and Kobe. Shaq not acknowledging Kobe. Shaq and his end of the game interview against Kobe. It had it all. Not to mention the game was insane as well. The Heat would get the win against the Lakers in overtime by 2 points. It was Dwayne Wade who led the Heat with 29 points and obviously Kobe Bryant who led the Lakers with 42 points but it wasn't really about the game obviously like I said before. It was about Shaq, his first game in Los Angeles after being traded to the Heat and if you weren't alive to see the game or you don't remember the game, this is what happened. Shaq found out late in the fourth quarter committing his 6th foul against his former teammate Kobe Bryant and obviously that was pretty significant. Then after the game, Shaq offered his explanation of what happened. He goes no layups, no dunks, especially for him. He also went on to say this. What are you thinking? I knew that it wasn't going to go in. That's all we wanted to do is come here and win. We're not trying to score 50 or 60 points trying to outdo anybody. We just want to play good team ball. In the end, Shaq also did his work. He dropped 24 points on 11 of 19, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 assists but yeah, it was Kobe Bryant. 42 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds and he nearly hit a game winner but in the end it was the Miami Heat who got the win. The 2016 Warriors vs Cleveland Cavaliers. Like we started on this video, we're going to end on this video with Kyrie Irving. Another clutch performance by Kyrie and this was the most watched game on Christmas Day ever and for a good reason. It lived up to what everybody wanted it to. We saw old man Richard Jefferson fly once again like he used to even at 36 years old. His dark over Clay Thompson in the fourth quarter sparked a 14-3 run by the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Cavaliers did just what they did in the finals a year prior. They came back and got a clutch win. In the end, they completed a 14th point fourth quarter comeback against the Golden State Warriors with Kevin Durant, Steph and Kyrie Clay Thompson and Draymond Green, an insane team but an even better game. Kyrie hit a turnaround jumper over Clay Thompson's incredible defense with 3.4 seconds left as the Cleveland Cavaliers rallied just the way they did in Drew's NBA finals to defeat the Golden State Warriors 109-108 and it was even more high than Kevin Durant and we saw him get knocked down or tripped but he had the chance to take that game winner and he missed. He finished with a monster 36 points though but in the end, Cleveland got the win and it was one of the best games I have ever seen. So let me know what you think the best Christmas day game was in the last 20 years. If you enjoyed the video, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could drop a like to support the channel. Let's see if we reach a thousand likes for the next video. Subscribe if you're new for weekly NBA content and I really, really hope you have a wonderful and enjoyable Christmas. That said, it's been your brother Smith. I am out. Peace.