NBA scores 2017: LeBron James and Kyrie Irving are a devastating offense all by themselves

The duo combined for 81 points on Friday, and Cleveland tied its own NBA record with 25 threes.

Mar 4, 2017, 2:50 PM UTC

NBA: Milwaukee Bucks at Cleveland Cavaliers

Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

LeBron James and Kyrie Irving didn’t lead the Cleveland Cavaliers’ offense on Friday — they were the offense. As the Cavaliers scored 135 points, James and Irving scored or assisted on 117 of them. That’s 87 percent of the offense being attributable to those two.

It was a record-setting night for Cleveland, who roasted the Atlanta Hawks with 25 made threes. It’s the second time the Cavs have done that to the Hawks in the past 12 months, and it’s also the second time any team has ever hit 25 threes in a game.

Last year, the Cavaliers roasted Atlanta in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, meaning the regular season record remained at 23. On Friday, the Cavaliers made sure they had that one, too.

Still, on a night where Cleveland set an all-time NBA record, the focus still belongs to the top two Cavaliers scorers. Irving finished with 43 points, while James tallied 38. It’s the third time the two teammates have combined for at least 80 points, and when they’re both going like they were on Friday, Cleveland has an offense that is nearly impossible to guard.

Quietly, the Cavaliers shoot threes better than anyone else in the league. Houston shoots them more prolifically, and San Antonio hits them at a slightly higher percentage. But Cleveland ranks right there in all major categories: second in percentage (39.2 percent), second in makes (13.3), and second in attempts (33.9). When James and Irving are both scoring at will, you have to sag off shooters to try to slow them down. When you do, it’s all over.

It’s all symbiotic — the three-point shooting allows James and Irving to be successful, which gives Cleveland’s shooters their open looks, which opens up the floor for the top two Cavaliers stars, and on and on we go. Irving had five triples while James nailed six — including this absurd one below — but 14 more came from teammates.

Those teammates were Channing Frye (3), Richard Jefferson (3), Derrick Williams (3), Kyle Korver (3), and Iman Shumpert (2). New Cavaliers addition Deron Williams didn’t hit one, but he’s more than capable of doing that. J.R. Smith and Kevin Love — they still don’t have Love!! — combined for 11 made threes when Cleveland hit 25 last season, and neither of them are playing this year.

Atlanta doesn’t have the league’s greatest defense, and the Hawks clearly have problems with Cleveland given that this has happened before. Still, this Cavaliers offense causes problems that don’t come with easy solutions — if those solutions even exist.

However, the Cavaliers did one very bad thing: They ruined the Tim Hardaway Jr. Game

I am furious. That Hardaway Jr. dropped 36 points on 13-of-20 shooting is proof that good, sweet, and innocent things still exist in this world. Why’d Cleveland have to go out and ruin it?

It’s Hardaway Jr.’s second career 30-point game as well as a career high — he scored 33 points last month against Houston. The fourth-year veteran has been a bright spot for Atlanta this season, and that continued in a violent outpouring that brought the Hawks within three points late in the fourth quarter, despite trailing by more than 20.

Had Atlanta continued on and actually came back in this game, we might tenderly refer to it as the Tim Hardaway Jr. Game for decades to come. Instead, it’s just that one time the Cavaliers hit a bunch of threes.

Wow. Who even cares?