On Saturday night, the Golden State Warriors beat the Boston Celtics 109-105 in one of the season’s most exciting games.

However, in many ways, it felt like watching a one-on-one battle.

Point guards Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving put on a show at Oracle Arena. Curry had a season-high 49 points on 16-for-24 shooting, including 8-for-13 from three-point range, in 37 minutes. Irving went 13-for-18 from the floor for 37 points in 36 minutes of action.

After the game, Kevin Durant admitted that even the players knew Curry and Irving were going at it and knew to let them take over.

"You just got to sit back and enjoy the show," Durant said, per ESPN’s Chris Forsberg. "You know what I'm saying? Once they got it going, you got to get out of the way. You can tell both teams kind of felt that midway through the first. Kyrie got it going, got it cooking early, and then Steph, you could just tell was kind of back and forth."

He continued, ”We were trying to look for Steph, they were looking for Kyrie, and they came to play. That's what high-level basketball players do. You see a matchup that will bring the best out of you. You come out here with your best and those two guys showed a lot tonight."

Despite the fact that Curry and Irving met in each of the past three NBA Finals and that the Warriors and Cavaliers engaged in some petty trolling over the years, the two point guards have profound respect for each other, as evidenced by their post-game comments.

"[Irving is] an amazing player. The way he saw the game tonight was pretty crazy," Curry said. "I feel like we were defending pretty well, he just made some tough shots, a lot of tough shots and gave his team a lot of momentum. But we try to bring the best out of each other and tonight, was kind of one of those nights. Just a fun way to play. Obviously, we want to try to slow him down a little bit next time, but it was fun.”

"I felt like we did a great job sticking to our game plan, but he's unbelievable," Irving noted. "You gotta give credit when credit is due. When he's making shots like that, it makes it easier for their team to create separation. For us, we would be getting within 4, within 2, and then Steph was hitting some big bombs to create that separation. So that's a tell-tale sign of a great player.”

Although it remains a possibility that Curry and Irving could meet in the Finals for the fourth-straight time, it doesn’t seem like there’s any bad blood at all between the two players. In fact, it’s quite the opposite situation.

"It's just always great [playing in Oracle]," Irving admitted. "Because you know that you're going against a Goliath of a team. And they're just so special. And we've all developed great relationships off the floor. And we've been playing against each other in the Finals for the last three years. And now that I'm on a new team, now it's an even kind of different environment for me now. I have different teammates.”

He added, ”When I'm going out there, going against them, it's the same motivation. You want to beat them. And that's what I try to echo to my team. And I know they feel the same way. To be considered the best you've gotta beat the best. And that's what we try to do."