SAN ANTONIO: Twenty-six thoughts for 26 3-point attempts in a thrilling 128-125 overtime victory against the San Antonio Spurs…
1. One of the topics of conversation this morning at shootaround was Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love having never appeared in a postseason game and how much a night like this against an elite opponent like this in a hostile environment like this can prepare them for what lies ahead the next three months.
2. Based on what we saw tonight, The Kid is ready.
3. Kyrie Irving scored a franchise-record 57 points against the defending NBA champions, the second time this season he has scored 55 or more. He scored 15 consecutive points for the Cavs during the fourth quarter and overtime and had a stretch of 14 straight in the second quarter.
4. “Kyrie Irving was unstoppable. I don’t know how to guard that,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “He did a hell of a job. We all know how talented he is, but he really went to a new level tonight. He had a hell of a night and that talent just got us.”
5. The Cavs looked dead in the water with three minutes left in regulation. The Spurs had led since about the middle of the second quarter, but never by double figures. Then LeBron James missed a driving layup and complained he was fouled, Danny Green hit a corner 3-pointer at the other end in transition and LeBron was whistled for a technical for arguing with referee Eric Lewis. (Lewis, incidentally, was the official David Blatt was arguing with in Phoenix when James shoved him back toward the bench. Lewis has the reputation of pandering to the star players, so James must have really blistered his ears to get that technical).
6. Green made the free throw, the Spurs had their first 10-point lead and the game seemed to be slipping away with 3:05 to play.
7. “You just try to regain your composure, including myself, which we did,” James said. “We had to make some timely shots, we had to get some timely shots. We just kept fighting throughout the whole game.”
8. Irving was spectacular. Sensational. Spectational. He surpassed the old club record of 56 points set by James in 2005. He has the two highest scoring games in the NBA this season and two of the five 50-point performances. He shot 7 of 7 on 3-pointers, including four in the fourth quarter and overtime. He shot 10 of 10 at the free-throw line. He made 6 of his last 7 shots – the final three of the fourth quarter and his final three of overtime. And his 3-pointer to tie at the end of regulation was as mesmerizing as it was clutch.
9. Tristan Thompson was in the game solely to set the screen to free Irving, which he did. James inbounded to Irving, who had enough time and composure with 3.1 seconds left to take a dribble and get better position for the 3 over a hard-charging Kawhi Leonard.
10. Irving’s numbers in the clutch his first three years in the league were terrific, but they have slipped considerably this season. He entered the night shooting 22 percent (4 of 18) when the game was within three points in the final three minutes. In those situations tonight, however, he was 4 for 4 in the fourth quarter and overtime.
11. “You just try to shoot every shot the same,” Irving said. “As long as my elbow's pointed at the rim, I feel like it has a great chance to go in. I learned that from Kobe Bryant. If you can get a good look at it, and your elbow is pointed at the rim, then it has a great chance of going in.”
12. Irving’s dazzling 55-point game against the Portland Trail Blazers occurred while James was out resting a wrist injury. To score 57 while James scuffled early, only to recover and score 31 (16 in the fourth quarter and overtime) is perhaps even more impressive. James and Irving, incidentally, scored the same number of points as Parker, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard, Tiago Splitter and Danny Green combined.
13. Dwyane Wade in his prime was an explosive scorer, but Irving might be even better … and he’s yet to even reach his prime. That would make him the best scorer James has ever played with and could alleviate some of the scoring load from LeBron in the postseason. Irving’s 57 points, incidentally, matches Wade’s total from the final four games of last season’s Finals against these same Spurs (that stat courtesy of Ethan Skolnick at Bleacher Report).
14. “The kid is special,” James said of Irving. “We all know it. We all see it. For him to go out and put up a performance like he did was incredible.”
15. Irving has never played in true pressure moments with anything more than a regular season game at stake, but he has never shrunk from the moment. James wasn’t ready to declare Irving ready for the playoffs, but he’s obviously close.
16. “He will be,” James said. “I always say the best teacher in life is experience and I think tonight was a great experience for all the guys that haven’t been a part of huge games like this. This is the best competition that you could find in our league and for the guys to be able to stay composed and keep your head throughout the whole game, even when it wasn’t going so well, and sometimes where it was going so well. Just to keep our mind into it, more than the physical, the mental as well. That was a big step for our team.”
17. Irving even calmed down Blatt in overtime. The Cavs had just takent a 119-116 lead on a 3-pointer from James when Iman Shumpert fouled Tony Parker at the other end for a potential three-point play. Blatt went crazy waving his arms and screaming as the tails of his jacket flapped in the breeze. Smith stared at Blatt from the bench while Irving came over and put his hand on his coach’s shoulder and calmed him down.
18. With a chance to again tie the game, Parker missed the ensuing free throw (a recurring theme for the Spurs) and Irving sank another 3 at the other end to push the lead to 122-118.
19. For as terrific as Irving played down the stretch, the only reason the Cavs had a chance to win this game was Leonard’s inability to make a free throw in the final seconds of regulation. It was Leonard, remember, who split a pair of free throws in the final minute of that crushing Game 6 loss to the Heat in the 2013 Finals. This was similar in that Leonard played terrific all night against James and grabbed the huge offensive rebound off a Parker miss that seemed to clinch Thursday’s game. But he clanked both free throws at the line, setting up Irving’s terrific shot. The Spurs shot 56 percent for the game and made five more baskets than the Cavs, but they shot just 70 percent at the line (19 of 27).
20. “We got ourselves into three different situations in that game where we could have won and we didn’t do it,” Popovich said. “They kept plugging, to their credit. (Irving) got hot, LeBron made some shots and they won the game.”
21. James said Irving’s hot hand early allowed him to focus on some of the game’s other areas such as defense, rebounding and blocks. The Cavs also mixed up their defensive scheme late. Kevin Love again sat the entire fourth quarter and Timofey Mozgov subbed in for one second while Leonard shot his second free throw and came right back out. The small lineup, featuring Shumpert and Thompson, allowed the Cavs to switch on all pick-and-rolls defensively. The concept was risky and often left the Cavs in mismatches, but it worked.
22. “Ultimately that strategy worked for us,” Blatt said. “You can’t say it would every time.”
23. The Spurs killed the Cavs most of the night with their pick-and-rolls and backdoor cuts. But Thompson often picked up Parker on the defensive switches for the final few minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime. Parker sank one jumper over an outstretched Thompson, but missed the second.
24. Much like Tuesday at Dallas, the Cavs are beating teams they haven’t beaten in a long, long time. The Spurs had won 10 straight against the Cavs, who hadn’t won in AT&T Center since the 2008-09 season. That was also the last season they had beaten the Mavericks at American Airlines Center until Tuesday. Quite a trip already.
25. You may have heard in recent TV interviews players saying in a singsong voice, “Stay with it!” That stems from assistant coach James Posey and has become sort of a motto in recent days. But it certainly applies to this game. Down 10 with three minutes to go, down six in the final 34 seconds and yet they never gave up.
26. “That was a lot of fun, wasn’t it?” Blatt said. “Man, what a game for March. What a game. You don’t see that every day. What a game.” Indeed. Talk to you Sunday from Orlando.