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Come Fan with UsMonday, June 22, 2026

Kyrie Irving scores 28 points against Denver Nuggets despite illness

There was a chance that Kyrie Irving wouldn’t play in Friday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets. Of course, he ended up playing and scored 28 points in the Cavaliers’ loss.

Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Kyrie Irving is a rather good basketball player. He was listed as questionable for the Cleveland Cavaliers' game against the Denver Nuggets on Friday after missing the team's shootaround due to illness. However, the second-year point guard ended up playing 39 minutes and didn't really look like a guy who had been under the weather earlier that day.

Irving finished with a game-high 28 points, seven assists and five steals -- but the Nuggets got the last laugh with a 98-91 victory. Denver couldn't figure out how to slow down Cleveland's star point guard for much of the game, but found something that worked in the final minutes. George Karl switched Andre Iguodala onto Irving for the last minutes of the fourth quarter. Iguodala's lockdown defense made life very difficult for Irving and allowed the Nuggets to close out the win at home.

Although Cleveland lost the game, Irving’s performance while sick was yet another impressive game for the 20-year-old. Yup, the kid is just 20 years old. The Cavs are struggling, but Irving is among the league leaders at 23.5 points per game.

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