Cavaliers
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
In five games since his return from a fractured kneecap, Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving averaged 13.0 points in 21.6 minutes per game. That was before his breakout performance Monday night against the Toronto Raptors in Quicken Loans Arena.
Irving scored a season-and-game-high 25 points with six rebounds and eight assists in Cleveland’s 122-100 victory over Toronto Monday. Irving resembled the player that earned an All-Star nod last season, which was a welcomed sight for the Cavs’ organization and fans everywhere.
“For me, it’s just about getting better every single game,” Irving said. “That’s what I’ve tried to do, where there are going to be some nights or the past few nights where I didn’t have my legs on my jumpshot and I start questioning, I dive on the floor and we’re up by 20, that mental hurdle to get over.
“For me now, it’s just continuing, continuing, continuing to progress and get better for my teammates.”
While the Cavs (23-9) pulled away from Toronto (21-15) in the fourth quarter behind Irving’s brilliance, the contest was close through three quarters. Toronto trailed 94-87 after a Jonas Valanciunas dunk with 9:47 remaining in the fourth quarter — That’s when Irving overwhelmed the Raptors to put Toronto away for good.
After Valanciunas’ dunk, Irving either scored or assisted on Cleveland’s next 14 points. The spurt started with an Irving three-pointer and layup that gave the Cavs a 99-87 lead with 8:51 to play. On Cleveland’s next two possessions, Irving assisted a wide open dunk for Cavs center Timofey Mozgov, followed by an assist to shooting guard Iman Shumpert for a wide open three-pointer that put Cleveland up 104-87. Irving capped the spurt with a floater and another assist to Mozgov for a jumper that gave Cleveland a 108-87 lead with 6:13 to play. Irving’s fourth quarter antics completely demoralized the Raptors.
“I feel like I remained pretty consistent going into that fourth quarter,” Irving said. “Being there for my teammates, trying to make plays and the coaches giving me that confidence to go out there and just be myself. Spending the first three quarters trying to get everybody involved and make plays, the fourth quarter it’s a little different aggressiveness.
“It’s a close game, so for us to get separation is the big thing. When you have a game where the best player on our team doesn’t have to come in the fourth quarter, that’s a big time progressive step for us.”
Irving’s fourth quarter heroics were so impactful, the Cavs didn’t need the services of LeBron James in the final period. James sat out the fourth quarter and finished with 20 points (7-of-11 from the field), two rebounds and seven assists in almost 31 minutes.
Irving helped lead the Cavs to their fifth straight win and 10th victory in their last 12 contests. Cleveland is now 15-1 at home in 2015-16 and since Jan. 19 of last season, the Cavs hold a 35-2 regular season record at The Q. The win was also Cleveland’s 38th consecutive victory when scoring at least 100 points at home.
“It was great,” Irving said about how satisfying the night was. “We set out a game plan to execute and we did that. We paid attention to the scouting report and we knew that it was going to be an uptempo game.
“They’ve been playing extremely well, one versus two in our respective conference. We knew it was going to be competitive.”
The Cavs have been particularly lethal from the three-point line of late. Entering Monday, Cleveland had made at least 11 three-pointers in three of its last four games, while averaging 9.8 triples per game this season (5th-best in the NBA). The Cavs sank 17 three-pointers against Toronto Monday, eight of them via shooting guard J.R. Smith. All 24 of Smith’s points came on three-pointers as he shot 8-of-14 from beyond the arc against Toronto.
While Smith’s performance against Toronto was dazzling, the night belonged to Irving. Blatt said the Cavs “will remain competent and cautious” when it comes to Irving’s playing time and health, but Irving’s performance Monday night was a good sign for the future.
POSTED 01/04/2016 22:41
Lake County Sentinel
