LeBron vs. Steph: Who does America prefer?

They've combined to win six of the last eight NBA Most Valuable Player awards. Their jerseys are the hottest-selling swag in the sport. They're two of the game's most-sought-after (and best-compensated) pitchmen and two of its most famous superstars.

LeBron James and Stephen Curry are the faces of the NBA. But who do the fans think is better, and who do they like more?

A new online survey of more than 2,000 adult Yahoo Sports users found a pretty even split among the total audience. Twenty-nine percent of respondents tapped the Golden State Warriors sharpshooter as the superior player, while 25 percent took the Cleveland Cavaliers star, and 45 percent said they consider the All-NBA First Teamers "equally good" despite their different on-court styles. Those numbers shift depending on your geography, though, with fans in the Northeast and Midwest giving King James the edge, while those in the West and South give the nod to Chef Curry.

On a team level, with the exception of respondents in the Cavs' Midwest ballpark, fans tend to prefer the defending-champion Warriors over the Eastern Conference champs, with 59 percent of those surveyed saying they like Golden State more than Cleveland, and only 41 percent picking the King, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love's crew.

After two impressive wins at Oracle Arena in Oakland, the Warriors traveled to Cleveland just two wins away from knocking off the Cavs for the second straight year. While there's no shame in losing to the team that rolled up the most regular-season wins in NBA history, if Cleveland does fall short in its championship bid once again, somebody will have to bear the burden of taking the blame ... and, according to younger fans, that somebody is LeBron.

One-fourth of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 say they believe blame for the loss should be assigned more to James individually than to the Cavaliers as a whole. (Millennials are a tough crowd!) Older respondents tended to be much more forgiving, with only 7 percent of fans age 55 and up thinking LeBron would deserve more criticism than the rest of the team, while nearly three-quarters of 55-and-up respondents thinking the King and his court should split the static equally.