Good morning. Kyrie Irving brought a flamethrower to San Antonio.

That and more in Friday’s NBA newsletter. SUBSCRIBE.

Mar 13, 2015, 12:15 PM UTC

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

57: Kyrie Irving is something amazing right now. He dropped 57 on the Spurs Thursday in a thrilling OT nightcap. That explosion included the brilliant shot that sent the game to overtime and a few more clutch beauties. The Cavs eventually won 128-125.

The game doesn't get to overtime if Kawhi Leonard hits one of two late free throw attempts, but the game also doesn't get to overtime if Kawhi doesn't lock down LeBron much of the night while supplying some offense of his own, so let's just call it a brilliant game between two quite good teams. If San Antonio needs to blame someone, this kid who flipped double birds at LeBron might do the trick.

Kyrie now has the top and No. 2 individual scoring games of the season. What’s most impressive is that they’ve come against the Spurs and Blazers, who rank No. 9 and No. 3 respectively in defensive rating. Of course point guard defense is neither team’s strongest suit.

UNLOVED: The subplot to the game is that Kevin Love wasn't really involved. At all. David Blatt eventually put him in during overtime after he sat the entire fourth, where he picked up a few rebounds, got an assist and availed himself well on defense. Love was actually trying to keep his legs warm on a bike in the tunnel when Blatt did turn to him. On one hand, Blatt can't be faulted for finding a small lineup he liked and riding it. On the other, Love can't be blamed for wanting to actually play basketball.

THAT OTHER GAME: The Wizards crushed the Grizzlies, who sat three starters plus Tony Allen, in a resuscitating slopfest on TNT. Rob Mahoney wrote a good piece on the problem with Memphis' starting lineup.

AND THREE MORE, OF DIFFERING QUALITY: The Pacers beat the Bucks in a sweet little overtime game. Indiana has now won seven straight and is just four games away from .500! The Jazz crushed the Rockets. The Lakers and Knicks played a late game. No one watched it. Literally no one. I'm betting even the players were finagling a way to watch Kyrie via Google Glass or something. Our NBA Scores hub has the result, whatever it was.

MASTER CHEF: Zito Madu on how Stephen Curry shows us what true mastery looks like.

KIWI KINDNESS: Noted friend-to-all Steven Adams claims he attempted to resolve a tiff with Chris Paul that included a slap by requesting an apology from the small Clipper.

DENVER'S HUNT AFTER HUNT: Adam Mares has written a bunch of thorough breakdowns of the top candidates for the Nuggets coaching job. The question now is whether any of them are better options than Melvin Hunt.

ON THE CLEVELAND DEFENSE: Matt Moore on whether the improvement is real.

PAT RILEY REFLECTS: Good Q&A from Ethan Skolnick with Riley. I feel like LeBron’s decision to leave completely tortures and haunts Riley at this point. He did not see that coming, and it must be very hard to accept for a man of Riley’s experience and confidence.

FREE LEE: The Warriors’ highest-paid player, David Lee, is currently out of the rotation. Golden State just doesn’t need him any more.

FROM MCDONALD’S ALL-AMERICAN TO MCDONALD’S EMPLOYEE: Marc Spears with the tale of David Harrison.

LOVELY: Isaiah Thomas on clutch shots in The Players’ Tribune. Includes this line: “Just as it hit the net, the clock hit zero and the backboard lit up as if to say, ‘Yeah, dude just hit that.’” Glorious.

Happy Friday my friends. See you next time.