Just five days after Klay Thompson made history by scoring 37 points in a quarter and tied the season high 52 points Mo Williams had set on Jan. 13, Kyrie Irving gave us the season's third 50+ scoring game by dropping 55 on the Portland Trail Blazers. Irving needed only 36 shots to get there, as he scored 11 three-pointers and nine free throws while also dishing out five assists.
The Cavaliers needed every one of Kyrie Irving’s 55 points
Irving went off with LeBron sitting the game out with a wrist injury, and the Cavaliers badly needed it.
David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
To top off the best night of his career, Irving sealed the game with a three and some free throws. It was the virtuoso performance the Cavaliers needed from their young star point guard to get past the Blazers without LeBron James, who missed the game with a wrist injury.
What makes the scoring explosion more impressive is that it was impossible to see it coming. Irving went 0-for-7 to begin the game and was in distributor mode, notching four of his total five assists early in the first quarter. He started to heat up near the end of the first period and finished with 12 points on 11 shots. Still, nothing suggested at that point that Irving was going to go off like he did.
Then the second quarter rolled around and Irving went 5-for-5 from the floor with four three-pointers to score 16 points and go into halftime with 28 points on 16 shots, numbers that any player would kill for in an entire game.
Irving wasn't done and followed up his fantastic first half with 11 third-quarter points. The Cavaliers needed each and every one of those, as LaMarcus Aldridge scored 31 points to Irving's 39 after three quarters and the Cavaliers, who were not getting much from Kevin Love, were only up five. Their record this season without LeBron James was 1-8 before the game and the Blazers have one of the league's best closers in Damian Lillard. It was possible for the game to slip away.
But Irving didn't let it. Kyrie pulled the offense to himself, taking 12 of the team's 21 shots in the final period and scoring 16 points. Lillard could never get going, but the Blazers caught up with three-pointer after three-pointer. Aldridge gave the Blazers a three-point lead with a shade over two minutes to go before Irving tied it up. After free throws by Timofey Mozgov and Aldridge, the game was tied once again with 27 seconds to go. Irving dribbled the clock down to seven second before launching a pull up three over Nicolas Batum.
Damian Lillard couldn’t respond and Irving iced the game with some free throws to give the Cavaliers their 27th win of the season and their eighth straight.
Two weeks ago, the Cavaliers were below .500 and it looked like only a miracle would salvage their season. Now, after beating the Clippers, Bullls, Thunder and Blazers, the Cavs are only 4.5 games back from second in the East and are starting to resemble the team everyone predicted they could be after their offseason acquisitions. The trades the front office has made in-season for Mozgov, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert are paying off and Irving is showing that he can lead a good team to quality wins. If Kevin Love finds his comfort zone, they could be one of the most dangerous teams in the postseason.
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