Maybe you didn’t hear: Kyrie Irving was good last night. Like, real good. His 41 points in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, paired with another 41 from LeBron James, led the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 112-97 victory and forced a Game 6 against the Golden State Warriors Thursday night in Ohio.
The Warriors were helpless as he two-stepped his way to impossible fadeaways and leaners, drifting remarkably fast in uncanny directions and using a singular touch toward 17-for-24 shooting. The advanced metrics tell the story even more clearly:
Kyrie had an effective FG% of 80.4%. Per @BenAlamarESPN, his shot quality was so tough that an avg player would shoot 45.5% on same shots.
— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) June 14, 2016
The game acted as the realization of years of hype about Irving. Beset by injuries and, before James came back to town, a terrible roster, the 24 year old showed flashes of aesthetically dazzling basketball but lacked a postseason performance to seal his nascent legend. His 55-point affair against the San Antonio Spurs, a thrilling regular season display, was the previous top performance of his career. Now he has this, a defiantly graceful display on the game’s biggest stage, to point to.
The Cavs will need more of this fire from Kyrie if they’re to fight another day and have a shot at the title in a Game 7 back in Oakland. Game 6, another must-win, will see all of the league leaning and hoping for more of these wonderful fireworks.
