LeBron James and Kyrie Irving form a dynamic partnership to the point that the duo was largely responsible for bringing the 2016 NBA Championship home for the Cleveland Cavaliers. On Tuesday evening, that relationship was at the forefront when it came to a specific on-court action and it wasn’t even a “basketball play” in the truest sense.
With less than three and a half minutes left in the third quarter of what would become a blowout victory over the Detroit Pistons, James grabbed an explosive rebound and turned to push the tempo off the dribble. In the process, he knocked Irving to the floor inadvertently. Rather than simply continuing on his path down the floor, though, LeBron stopped in his tracks while the ball bounced on its own, helped Irving off the ground with haste and then continued his assault on the Detroit defense without losing the live dribble.
The Cavaliers didn’t score on the ensuing possession but that was about the only offensive hiccup of the night for Cleveland. James finished with a dominant triple-double, racking up 16 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds in only 28 minutes, while Irving added 26 points and six assists in a similarly abbreviated outing. All told, the Cavs knocked down an absurd 19 of 30 from beyond the three-point arc on the way to 1 28-96 win and the bromance between the team’s two best players was on full display in more ways than one.
