Kyrie Irving And Kevin Love Were The Heroes The Cavaliers Needed In Game 4

At the 6:46 mark of the second quarter in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron James committed an offensive foul. It was his fourth foul of the first half, marking the first time that he’d done that in his career. The foul could not have come at a worse time: Cleveland was down 44-33, Boston seemingly had all the momentum, and for at least six minutes and 46 seconds, the Cavaliers would have to close the gap without the best player in the world on the floor.

At this point, things looked kind of bleak for the defending champs. They had been thoroughly outclassed on their home floor for more or less the last three quarters going back to Game 3, and it looked like we were going to have to accept the distinct possibility that the series was heading back to Boston tied at two games a piece.

Fast forward to Boston’s postgame interview and here is what Avery Bradley – one of the best defenders of opposing guards in the league – had to say.

Bradley sounds like he and his teammates were completely flummoxed by one player: Kyrie Irving. Based on Cleveland’s point guard’s stat line to finish the night, it’s hard to blame anyone in green for being terrified at what they just witnessed.

Irving carried the load for the Cavaliers really all game – he had a playoff career high 42 points on 15-for-22 shooting in a convincing 112-99 win for the home team. He was spectacular, as Irving was doing that thing where he was throwing shots up from either way downtown or from seemingly impossible angles around/under the rim that went in only by some kind of miraculous manipulation of a basketball.

The third quarter he threw down is going to be remembered as maybe the most important 12 minutes of basketball in his career, and that’s coming from a guy who already hit the most memorable shot in Cleveland basketball history. The Cavs entered the period down 57-47. By the time the buzzer sounded to mark the end of the frame, they had an 87-80 lead.

Of the 40 third quarter points Cleveland scored, 20 came from Irving.

Oh, and he hurt his ankle as he buried a layup with 1:49 left in the frame. Just a normal roll, but still, the kind of thing that had him on the ground smacking the floor in pain. From that point on, he had nine points in 90 seconds, including this stepback three from several feet behind the line at the end of the period.
https://twitter.com/nbaayy/status/867205210141147136

This is the absolute best of Irving – an efficient scorer who heats up quickly and crushes the opposing team’s will even faster. Getting this on a night when LeBron is on his game is important. Getting it on a night like Game 4 – when LeBron needed help and some time to get into a rhythm – is even more important.

While we’re discussing the absolute best of Irving, let’s discuss the absolute best of Kevin Love, too. Because Irving had such a huge night and LeBron went for 34 points, six assists, and five rebounds, Love’s night got a little lost.

That’s a shame, because Love did exactly what he needed to do, scoring 17 points and ripping down 17 rebounds. He also dished out five assists, although let’s face it, he would have had a sixth if not for LeBron’s uncharacteristic brick on a dunk.

Love is at his best when he is picking his spots, knocking down open threes when the opportunities present themselves, setting up his teammates, and eating up rebounds. Basically, this was the exact game that the Cavaliers need Love to play going forward, one where he fills in the gaps – with LeBron not in, he led the team in rebounds and blocks (two) and was second in assists on Tuesday – and takes care of the things that his other two superstar teammates are struggling to do on a given night.
Now that Cleveland has a commanding 3-1 lead (heh) in the series, it would take something kind of crazy to keep us from Cavs-Dubs III next week. To win that series, Cleveland’s going to need four things:

1. Its defense is going to have to play well.
2. Its role players need make an impact on offense by getting and hitting the open shots they’ll get.
3. LeBron to be LeBron.
4. Irving and Love to do the things that make them All-NBA caliber players when they’re at their best.

Expecting all four of these things to happen at 100 percent is probably a little too much to ask for, although it’s the Finals, so if there’s any time to do everything super well it’s that. Still, Cleveland’s defense wasn’t great on Tuesday night, its role players attempted 12 shots total (although they hit eight of them), and it took LeBron a while to get cooking.

But thanks to Irving and Love playing just about perfectly, Cleveland walked out of their building with a 13-point win. They freed up LeBron to get going in the second half after a rough six quarters, and in the end, the trio combined for a franchise-record 93 points.

This is something that will pay off against Golden State if it continues to happen in the form of open shots for guys like J.R. Smith and Kyle Korver. But for now, they have one more win to get against the Celtics. Until then, let’s leave with the lasting memory of Tuesday’s game: Kyrie By God Irving making a Boston defender look foolish.

When you have a career high in scoring and your team’s on its way to a somewhat comfy win, you can try silly stuff like this. He wouldn’t be Uncle Drew if he didn’t.