In a game that saw LeBron James catch fire from beyond the arc and the Golden State Warriors build a 14-point fourth-quarter lead, Kyrie Irving made the ending about him.

Golden State opened the fourth with a 7-0 blitz, extending its lead to a game-high 14. That felt like the end.

Kevin Durant (36 points, 15 rebounds) was in rhythm. Klay Thompson (24 points), seldom idle, kept the Cavaliers defense on its toes away from the ball. Stephen Curry (15 points, three assists) could barely buy a bucket, but he set quality screens, and the Warriors didn't seem to need him.

That should have been the story coming out of this game: the impossibility that is Golden State.

Curry was quiet offensively, but it didn't matter. The Warriors shot under 40 percent on wide-open looks, but whatever. They were going to leave Cleveland with a victory anyway.

The ability to win imperfectly, if ugly, is part of the reason signing Durant was so huge, as Yahoo Sports' Dan Devine noted:

— Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) December 25, 2016

But then the Cavaliers happened.

More specifically, Irving happened.

Irving shot 6-of-11 from the field and scored 14 of his 25 points in the fourth. He dished out two assists, picked up three steals and then, with Cleveland trailing by one inside 10 seconds to play, drilled the game-winning bucket over Thompson:

— NBA TV (@NBATV) December 25, 2016

Irving's Christmas Day heroics are a lower-stakes callback to his championship-clinching three-pointer in Game 7 of the NBA Finals last season. Only this time, instead of working against Curry on the perimeter, he was attacking Thompson—a 6'7" wing recognized for his defensive chops across multiple positions.

Moments like this are not foreign to Irving. They're a part of his everyday job description this side of Cleveland's improbable title upset.

Indeed, Irving is shooting just 41.7 percent inside two minutes to play in games being decided by five points or fewer. But the Cavaliers are going to him more than anyone else. He has a higher usage rate than James in these situations, and his crunch-time plus/minus is second only to the four-time league MVP.

It's not a late-game transition that feels forced. It's organic. It even makes sense.

Defenses won't pack the paint when Irving goes one-on-one, because the threat of James still exists. And James' first instinct, for the most part, has always been to defer; playing off the ball, almost as a decoy, profiles as just another assist for him.

"That kid is special," James said of Irving's Christmas game-winner, per the NBA on Twitter. "It was never in doubt. That's what he do."

None of this means the torch is being passed in Cleveland. Irving is having a fantastic season; he is the only player on the team averaging more than 23 points and five assists while shooting better than 40 percent from downtown. But James is still the alpha.

Nor does the Cavaliers' four-game winning streak against the Warriors, keyed by Irving's performance in the clutch, give them an irrevocable edge. 

"The way we lost that game," Thompson said Sunday, per the Bay Area News Group's Anthony Slater, "we gave them a gift."

He's right.

Cleveland will be hard-pressed to win another best-of-seven bout with Golden State if it needs to erase double-digit fourth-quarter deficits while sticking to an eight-man rotation. Depth will be an issue even with a healthy J.R. Smith (thumb surgery), and the Warriors won't shoot 30 percent from long range every time they're forced to play at the Cavaliers' speed. 

Still, as ESPN.com's Zach Lowe pointed out, there is a been-there, done-that feel to the way Cleveland plays Golden State:

— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) December 25, 2016

James is the primary author of the Cavaliers' poise under pressure. He is putting down more than 37 percent of his threes for the third time in his career and can make any given play, at any particular moment, no matter how implausible.

— NBA TV (@NBATV) December 25, 2016

The Cavaliers, remember, are statistical sewage whenever James takes a seat. Irving's absence has no such effect on their performance.

There is no wholesale transformation taking place in Cleveland. James is the team's best player, and Irving isn't on the verge of poaching MVP votes from his partner.

But where the Cavaliers once needed James to be the guy with the ball in hands at the end of close games, Irving is, shot-by-shot, moment-by-moment, becoming a crunch-time safety net all his own.

        

The Knicks Are a Mirage

Do not let the New York Knicks' winning record (16-14) and proximity to the Eastern Conference's No. 3 seed fool you: They are not a good basketball team.

That much became clear during a 119-114 loss to the Boston Celtics. In fact, that much becomes clear anytime they match up with squads that don't stink, per Posting and Toasting's Joe Flynn:

— Joseph Flynn (@ChinaJoeFlynn) December 25, 2016

Losing by five points doesn't usually imply anything sinister. And there will be those who point to an unlikely contested three in crunch time from Marcus Smart (15 points, seven assists) as the difference:

— NBA (@NBA) December 25, 2016

But the Knicks defense was terrible from wire to wire. Almost half of the Celtics' field-goal attempts went unchallenged, and Isaiah Thomas' (27 points, four assists) pick-and-rolls kept torching New York.

Isolation sets ruled the day on offense; the Knicks dished out 11 assists on 41 made baskets. Derrick Rose scored 25 points but dropped just three dimes while routinely forgetting Kristaps Porzingis existed. Carmelo Anthony, who was ice-cold save for a 15-point third quarter, got pick-pocketed by Avery Bradley when trying to go one-on-one during a crucial possession down the stretch.

New York is now 2-10 against outfits with winning records. And it has a lower net rating (minus-3.0) than last year (minus-2.8) when it collected a pitiful 32 victories.

Chemistry can still be an issue with the Knicks on the offensive end, and their 25th-place defense might improve as Joakim Noah sheds that final layer of rust and Porzingis learns to defend in space.

By no means, though, are these Knicks special. They're a low-level playoff unit, speeding toward a probable first-round exit, and nothing more.

Here Comes Santa Claus LaMarcus Aldridge

LaMarcus Aldridge hasn't always been a star for the San Antonio Spurs, but you'd never know that during the team's 119-100 victory over the Chicago Bulls. 

The power forward gave his troops an early Christmas present by making his first 11 shots from the field, and he finished with a sensational line: 33 points, nine rebounds and an assist on 15-of-20 shooting. Not only was this the most he'd scored in 2016-17, but it was one of the highest point totals Chicago had allowed this year.

— Jeff McDonald (@JMcDonald_SAEN) December 25, 2016

The San Antonio Express-News' Jeff McDonald is referring to a 2006 contest against the Phoenix Suns in which Fabricio Oberto exploded for 22 points on an 11-of-11 performance. But that's not who we should be comparing Aldridge to, because while Oberto's performance was an opportunity-aided anomaly, these Spurs kept feeding their big man. 

We have to compare him to himself. 

Aldridge hasn't been able to match what he did during his first season in San Antonio, when he gained comfort down the stretch and became a featured offensive option for the playoffs. NBA Math has the details: 

— NBA Math (@NBA_Math) December 26, 2016

Aldridge's numbers are down in 2016-17. He's had a worse showing in plenty of counting stats, and his percentages have followed suit. San Antonio's net rating has even declined by 6.6 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor. 

But this game showed that trend may not be sustainable. 

The Spurs kept pounding the ball in to Aldridge, letting him knock down jumpers and finish plays around the rim. And their offense didn't suffer for it; they outscored Chicago by 14 points while he was on the court, per ESPN.com. 

Momentum and confidence are unpredictable things in the NBA, and Aldridge's cementing those intangibles would make one of the Western Conference's front-runners more dangerous. Kawhi Leonard is still thriving and living on the fringes of MVP consideration, and this deep team is coalescing—as always—under head coach Gregg Popovich's supervision. 

Add in another All-Star contributor to this 25-6 powerhouse, and nightmares will follow. 

— B/R's Adam Fromal

              

Russell Westbrook's Giving Spirit

It's easy to focus on Russell Westbrook's scoring. 

The dynamic point guard can rocket by virtually any defender and explode toward the rim for a thunderous finish. His pull-up jumpers are athletic marvels, even when they clang off the iron. His gaudy point totals are quickly becoming nothing short of legendary. 

But on Christmas, Westbrook was in a giving mood. He still recorded 31 points and seven rebounds during the Oklahoma City Thunder's 112-100 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves at Chesapeake Energy Arena, but his 15 dimes were even more notable. Especially in the third quarter.

As you can see below, Westbrook carved apart the Minnesota defense with ease:

But it didn't stop there. 

This feed to Steven Adams was fantastic: 

Ditto for the highlight-reel pass below, which led to Westbrook's exhorting the crowd and high-fiving a young fan sitting in the front row: 

This wasn't a game that featured Westbrook feasting on easy opportunities; his assists sparked the OKC offense. He consistently pushed the Wolves back onto their heels and then capitalized with his fantastic vision. Often operating a half-second ahead of the opposition, he routinely squeezed the ball into tight spaces and showed no compunction sharing the rock. 

Add it to the ever-growing list of 2016-17 heroics from this MVP front-runner.

What can't he do? 

— B/R's Adam Fromal

            

The Streak Is Over

With a 111-102 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center, the Los Angeles Lakers beat their geographic rivals for the first time in a dozen games, per Elias Sports Bureau. And it's amazing how different the rosters looked the last time the Lakers emerged as the superior squad, all the way back on Oct. 29, 2013. 

A little over three years ago, the Clippers rolled out Jared Dudley, J.J. Redick, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan for the opening tip. This time, they were missing Griffin and Paul to injuries, and we know that's not good news for the organization.    

In 2013, the Lakers featured Pau Gasol, Steve Blake, Nick Young, Steve Nash and Shawne Williams, with Jordan Farmar, Xavier Henry, Jodie Meeks and Wesley Johnson coming off the pine. This time, a horde of youngsters and veteran role players managed to score in double figures, including each member of the starting five:

• Nick Young: 19 points
• Timofey Mozgov: 19 points
• D'Angelo Russell: 14 points
• Luol Deng: 13 points
• Julius Randle: 13 points
• Brandon Ingram: 10 points off the bench

However, don't assume a new era has begun. 

The Lakers may be on the rise, but they've struggled immensely after a hot start to the season and still have plenty of growing to do before emerging as legitimate contenders. As for the Clippers, this game wasn't representative of their lofty abilities when Paul and Griffin are healthy. 

But enjoy the end of the streak all the same. The NBA is better with a more subtle delineation between Los Angeles' two outfits. 

— B/R's Adam Fromal

       

Sunday's Scores

• Boston Celtics 119, New York Knicks 114
• Cleveland Cavaliers 109, Golden State Warriors 108
• San Antonio Spurs 119, Chicago Bulls 100
• Minnesota Timberwolves 100, Oklahoma City Thunder 112
• Los Angeles Clippers 102, Los Angeles Lakers 111

             

Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com. Salary commitments via Basketball Insiders.

Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.

The Cleveland Cavaliers earned an impressive win over the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day, but it came with some controversy.

The review also stated LeBron James should have been called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim with 1:43 remaining.

Cleveland overcame a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Warriors in a rematch of the last two NBA Finals. The game could have been a preview of a third championship battle between the two squads, which lead their respective conferences.

However, the result sparked debate as to what happened on the final play of the game.

"I fell, and I didn't fall on my own," Durant said afterward, per Chris Haynes of ESPN.com.

Jefferson, who didn't deny making contact, countered, per Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal: "We all think we're fouled on every play in every single game."

The other controversy stemmed from this dunk and reaction by James, which didn't lead to a technical foul:

While the play gave the Cavaliers a two-point lead with less than two minutes remaining, the ensuing celebration was excessive.

The Cleveland Cavaliers got the Christmas present they were looking for Sunday: a 109-108 victory over the Golden State Warriors at their home of Quicken Loans Arena.

LeBron James must be happy he's on the winning side of this treatment. 

Joel Embiid entered the NBA with the tools to rule the paint.

But after missing what would’ve been his rookie season with the Philadelphia 76ers not once but twice on account of a tricky foot injury—and adding height and muscle to his body during that interminable wait—Embiid wanted more. He wanted to own the league inside and out.

This past summer, in preparation for his pro debut, Embiid enlisted the help of NBA skills trainer Drew Hanlen to sharpen his shot.

They hopped from gym to gym around Los Angeles, watching film of Hakeem Olajuwon and working the Dream Shake into Embiid’s repertoire. But by and large, Hanlen had Embiid, at 7’2” and a chiseled 250 pounds, study the game’s greatest scoring wings—Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony, among other subjects—to become a face-up force with three-point range.

“A lot of big guys lack natural touch, so it’s harder for them to shoot from further distance,” Hanlen told Bleacher Report. “He had natural touch when he came to me and we started working, so it was easy to make little mechanical tweaks to improve his numbers.”

Look around the league, and you’ll find giants like Embiid venturing out into what was once the domain of their smaller, quicker counterparts in greater numbers than ever. They’ve co-opted the three-point shot—a tool intended, in part, to dull their advantages in size and strength—as another weapon to assert their hardwood hegemony.

 

The Arc of History

Any list of the best bigs in basketball today is littered with guys who can beat you from way outside.

Anthony Davis went from taking 27 threes during his first three seasons combined to attempting 108 in 61 contests last season and 65 through 31 games in 2016-17. DeMarcus Cousins, a low-post bully of the highest order, takes 4.7 threes per game—up from 3.2 last season and 0.1 the season before that. In his first 27 games this season, Brook Lopez nearly quintupled his total three-point output from his first eight campaigns.

Perhaps no center’s success from beyond the arc has surprised more than Marc Gasol's. The Memphis Grizzlies’ man in the middle is now stepping out 3.5 times per game and knocking down threes at a 42.6 percent clip—a top-15 mark.

And he’s doing it with the range of a 7-foot Stephen Curry. According to NBA Savant, Gasol has hit 45.5 percent (5-of-11) of his shots from 27 feet and beyond, compared to 34.3 percent (23-of-67) for Curry.

“It’s definitely becoming a big part of what he’s doing,” said Portland Trail Blazers big man Meyers Leonard, who got burned by Gasol at the FedEx Forum in early December.

According to B/R Insights, players whose primary or secondary position is center have shot the ball nearly as well from three (35.4 percent) as those playing guard (35.9 percent). They’re also on pace to zoom past last season’s marks for three-point attempts and makes among 5-men, which were the highest in at least a decade.

“I think that’s where the game is going,” Indiana Pacers head coach Nate McMillan said. “Teams are encouraging their players to shoot the three, encouraging everybody to shoot the three.”

In some respects, having centers shoot threes can tilt the tables in one team’s favor more than, say, asking guards and wings to take more shots from deep. If a big is hanging around the perimeter, he’s probably pulling the opponent’s rim protector away from the paint and opening up the floor for his own teammates to attack.

“It doesn’t even have to be behind the three[-point line],” Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “Just a 5 that’s picking and popping now. Being behind the three puts an extreme amount of pressure on the defense.”

 

Young Guns

Myles Turner had the makings of a pick-and-pop phenom from the get-go for the Indiana Pacers. As a rookie, he canned shots inside the arc at clips close to or above the league average.

Turner had tested his range as a freshman at the University of Texas, hitting 17 of 62 threes (27.4 percent) while playing predominantly power forward. The Pacers pulled him in a bit, to the point where he finished 3-of-14 on long-range looks in 2015-16 between both big-man spots.

After a summer spent sharpening his three-point shot—Turner estimates that he launched 800-1,000 shots per day during the offseason—he’s taking (1.6 per game) and making them (37.3 percent) at higher rates than he did in college.

“I’ve always played in the post, but I’ve always worked on my shot,” Turner said. “When I was in high school, AAU and all that kind of stuff, I always took outside shots because it’s what came naturally to me. I put a lot of work into my shot as well.”

Kristaps Porzingis can go a step further: He’s been dancing around the arc for as long as he’s played the game. It wasn’t until he was “15 or 16” that he started to play inside.

“A lot of tall kids might want to shoot more from outside than inside now, seeing the way I play and the way Dirk [Nowitzki] played, who affected me,” Porzingis said.

Few tall kids grow up to be 7’3” like the New York Knicks’ young star. Fewer still move around the floor and shoot as effortlessly as he does.

“I’d give him the green light to shoot it,” said Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton, before watching New York’s Unicorn drain 3-of-4 from deep during a 118-112 Knicks win.

Porzingis, who’s hit 40.3 percent of his 5.3 threes per game, is the new posterchild for young bigs coming into the league ready to launch. Not far from the front of that pack is Karl-Anthony Towns, last season’s unanimous Rookie of the Year, a 33.6 percent shooter on 3.8 tries. And there are so many more like them, from Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Phoenix’s Dragan Bender to Charlotte’s Frank Kaminsky and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.

“I think it’s probably the way kids grow up nowadays,” Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek said. “They’ve seen this league transform with bigs shooting threes, so these guys are 12, 13 years old, they’re 6’5” and they’re out there shooting threes. It’s not surprising. At 7’3”, it might be a little bit surprising, but Manute Bol used to shoot threes. He was 7’7”.”

 

Stepping Back

In Portland’s practice gym, you’ll find a bell on the wall. If you take five shots from five different spots and hit at least 20 of them (80 percent), you get to ring it.

“That was always like a goal of mine,” Leonard said. “I would always get really close.”

Some 18s here, some 19s there, with the occasional 20 mixed in. Eventually, Leonard was ringing the bell regularly. He started showing off his stroke in practice and added three-pointers to his pregame routine. By the end of his third season, he was a fixture in the Trail Blazers’ rotation, taking two treys per game.

Now, Leonard’s so comfortable on the perimeter that he takes jump shots from three-point range, rather than the flat-footed set shots that other centers tend to deploy.

“All the guys in the NBA are strong enough to get the ball to the rim,” Leonard said.

For most bigs, it’s a matter of making mechanical adjustments, testing out tweaks frequently enough to etch them into their muscle memory and building confidence from beyond the arc.

Marreese Speights was never shy to let it fly from inside the line—hence the “Mo Buckets” moniker. It wasn’t until Steve Kerr and his Golden State Warriors staff encouraged him to take another step back last season that his long twos turned into threes.

“I’ve always been able to shoot,” Speights said, “but I never shot it in games because I never wanted to get subbed out of games.”

That fear disappeared with the Warriors’ support—and with a bit more arc on his shot. His confidence from that distance is one of the main reasons the Los Angeles Clippers were so pleased to snag Speights from Golden State this summer, and why he quickly became a staple of Doc Rivers’ stellar second unit.

“He’d rather me shoot it than turn it over,” Speights said, “so I shoot it.”

 

How To Be Big

Not all bigs gets that kind of encouragement to shoot. If you’re one of the bigger kids rising through the basketball ranks, chances are, coaches have told you to stay inside, where your size and strength can be put to better use.

“When I was coming up, the big man was taught to be in the paint, rebound and score in the paint,” Pacers center Al Jefferson said. “Now, it shows you how much skills these young guys coming up with them now. They’re able to dribble the ball like guards and shoot the three. So I think it just shows how much better that we got as players.”

Jefferson insists he has no interest in venturing out beyond 15-17 feet, where he’s been lethal for most of his pro career. Nor do the Pacers seem inclined to push his limits.

“I’m an antique,” he said. “You don’t see much of what I do no more. I think that makes me who I am. I don’t think coach want me to shoot threes.”

“Coach, can I shoot threes?” Jefferson asked McMillan, who chuckled at the question. “See?”

Even if he did, Jefferson would have to cope with the same physical challenges that make big men feel as comfortable inside as they often are uncomfortable outside.

“I feel like it’s more of a disadvantage when you’re higher up and you’re shooting more flat than anything,” Turner said. “That’s why a lot of big guys struggle to shoot free throws and whatnot, I believe.”

To Hanlen, it has less to do with height than hand size.

“The hardest thing is big guys have bigger hands, so their hand placement is completely different,” he said. “They usually have to have their hands closer together. And also, that means they have to release the ball differently because otherwise, their non-shooting hand would block their shooting hand’s path for a clear shot.”

 

Stay In Your Lane

Some NBA giants aren't ready, willing or able to join the league’s three-point revolution.

Rudy Gobert doesn’t mind competing with Utah Jazz teammate Trey Lyles in three-point contests behind closed doors. But when it comes to games, he knows where his bread is best buttered.

“I’m working on my mid-range a lot, but right now, I think the main thing for me is helping my team winning,” Gobert said. “I’m not going to do things I haven’t mastered yet. I just do things to help my teammates like set good screens and go to the rim and put pressure on the rim. I think when I do that, it’s the way that helps my team the most.”

Joakim Noah hasn’t shot threes since high school and hasn’t straightened out his crooked stroke, even after playing next to stretchy bigs like Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic in Chicago and Porzingis in New York.

“At this point, it is what it is,” he said. “Everybody has a role to play.”

The New Orleans Hornets tried to convince David West to swap out some of his patented 18-footers for threes, to no avail. The Indiana Pacers made a similar pitch, only to see it fall on deaf ears.

“I just never could get, not necessarily confident enough,” West said, “but I never felt like that would be an effective way for me to play.”

Zaza Pachulia, West’s Golden State teammate, gave it some thought while playing with Nowitzki and for Rick Carlisle in Dallas last season. He didn’t follow through, but after making his first official three over the summer with the Georgian national team, Pachulia has some hope.

“I’m just following the game plan,” he said, “but it’s something good to think about for the future. I’m glad you reminded me.”

 

Just Keep Shooting

Shooting threes in live action isn’t for everybody. Nor is it in every team’s best interest to consistently pull its centers away from the hoop. If a big is best at using his size to bully opponents inside, having him step outside can be a disservice to his own squad—especially if he’s not particularly proficient from the perimeter.

“There’s some centers that, if they want to shoot threes, I’m all for it,” Walton said. “If they want to stay out there and not be in the paint scoring on us and getting rebounds, I encourage them to do that.”

Walton wasn’t willing to name names, though there was one that popped up elsewhere in L.A.

“Guys like Marc Gasol shooting threes, he ain’t down low because he’s a killer down low,” Speights said. “So it’s sometimes good for the opposing team.”

Still, there’s nothing wrong with a big guy giving it a try, at least in an empty gym. Practicing threes can benefit a frontcourt player’s game in other ways, even if his full range never sees the light of day.

“David Lee in workouts shoots about 80 percent from NBA three, but he hasn’t made a traditional NBA three-pointer in his career,” Hanlen revealed. “He’s made like last-second shots, but the reason we work on and perfect his three-point shot is just so that his ability to knock down mid-range jump shots is a lot easier.”

No matter how tall or small you may be, it can’t hurt to work on your three-point shot. In today’s shooting-obsessed NBA, you never know when or how it might come in handy.

“I encourage everybody to be a better shooter because it helps your game, obviously,” Rivers said. “I wish someone had encouraged me [to do] that.”

 

All stats accurate as of games played Dec. 26 and via NBA.com and Basketball Reference unless otherwise noted. All quotes obtained firsthand.

Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and listen to his Hollywood Hoops podcast with B/R Lakers lead writer Eric Pincus.

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Discussions regarding the use of marijuana as a safer pain-relief alternative have become more prevalent in the NBA since Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr acknowledged in early December he tried using it to treat chronic back pain, and former NBA All-Star Chauncey Billups spoke up on the topic Friday.

Billups also disclosed that marijuana helped some of his former teammates relax when they were dealing with pregame anxiety.

"I had teammates. … I actually wanted them to smoke; they played better like that," he said. "It helped them focus in on the game plan. … I needed them to do that. I would rather them [smoke] sometimes than drink."

In May 2015, TMZ Sports polled 10 anonymous NBA players who were unanimously united in their support of medical marijuana legalization for players in the Association.

While the league has yet to indicate it's ready to legalize medical marijuana for players as a pain-relief alternative, the NBA does have one of the more lenient marijuana policies among major professional sports leagues.

Players are fined $25,000 for a second positive marijuana test and suspended for five games for a third positive test, according to Yahoo Sports' Kelly Dwyer.

Following the passage of several November ballot measures, medical marijuana is legal in 28 states, while recreational weed is legal in eight.

The Sacramento Kings and Philadelphia 76ers agreed to a makeup date for their Nov. 30 game that was postponed as a result of excess moisture on the floor at Wells Fargo Center. 

The Associated Press' Aaron Bracy reported the arena housed a Philadelphia Flyers hockey game the night before the Kings and 76ers were set to play in November. With the ice under the court, unseasonably warm weather may have caused the condensation.

"With our ice surface, sometimes humidity is our biggest opponent when we prepare for a game," said John Page, president of the Wells Fargo Complex. "We've never had an issue before, but we need to make sure we don't have this issue again."

Arena personnel did their best to dry the court off, and they received a helping hand from Kings big man DeMarcus Cousins, courtesy of the team's official Twitter account:

— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) December 1, 2016

Rescheduling the game will cause a bit of congestion for both teams at the end of January.

The Kings play the Houston Rockets on Jan. 31, and when they take on Philadelphia, they'll be just two days removed from the second half of a back-to-back on Jan. 27 and 28.

The 76ers, meanwhile, will now have three games in four nights. They play the Chicago Bulls on Jan. 29 and the Dallas Mavericks on Feb. 1, with Sacramento sandwiched in between.