Not a huge change, of course, but remember that the Cavs strategy for most of the playoffs was to let LeBron James work with the 2nd unit against opposing team’s benches. Even here, the Cavs were 9.4 points per 100 possessions better in the playoffs with Irving on the court, and 7.9 points per 100 possessions better with him off. With Irving, the tendency is to play down his personal achievements or success by pointing to what his team does when he is or is not on the court. You just don’t see guards tasked with creating for themselves scoring with that kind of usage and efficiency against defenses like the Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors very often. Not bad.įurther, these end points give Irving quite a bit of breathing room in terms of usage and turnover rate. These are, of course, arbitrary end points and perhaps arbitrary stats to value, but Kyrie Irving finds himself among LeBron James, Michael Jordan (three times), Bernard King, Amare Stoudemire, Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone, and Patrick Ewing. Only 10 times in the history of the game has a player enjoyed a playoff run where they compiled a true shooting rate over 57 with a (basketball-reference) usage rate over 29%, and a turnover rate lower than 11% in 10 or more games. It’s not hyperbole to say that Irving performed at a historically great level, and he did it in his Age-23 season. Looking at the big picture, though, we can take stock of Irving’s playoff performance on the whole. When you play like Kyrie Irving, there is always the opportunity for a Game 2 type performance. Irving’s saving grace: there was a lot of basketball to be played. But here it was, on the biggest stage imaginable, Irving’s moment - and he looked utterly bad. It hadn’t kept him from making All-Star Games, or winning All-Star MVP’s, or becoming a Nike Signature athlete. His team’s before LeBron James’ return hadn’t achieved anything, but there were plausible excuses for that. For the first time, it was possible that Kyrie Irving’s best wasn’t going to be good enough. Irving’s final line in a 110-77 Golden State beatdown of his team: 10 points on 14 shots, three turnovers, and one assist. All the same, the Cavs needed his best.īiggest game of Kyrie Irving's career in under three hours.- David Zavac June 5, 2016 He even told President Obama as much once the season was over. If you listen to the Cavs ‘coach, Tyronn Lue, you know Irving was doing his job. The burden fell on him because even as he became friends with Kevin Love off the court, he never developed the pick and pop rapport many envisioned. He played like a shooting guard, launching shot after shot with an assist or two sprinkled in. The burden fell on him because he became the secondary creator next to LeBron. He didn’t call the Warriors out for their arrogance, or loudly proclaim that the results were on him. Mind you, he didn’t do it by openly boasting of his skill. James, because it comes with the territory. The weight of it all fell on the shoulders of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. Lose, though, and the margin for error became close to nil. A win would inject life into a series most observers thought over before it started, give the Cavs homecourt advantage, and perhaps put the Golden State Warriors on their heels. Please see our data coverage page for details.The Cleveland Cavaliers entered Game 2 of the 2016 NBA Finals with a daunting task, but a tremendous opportunity. WNBA all-time (since 1997) unless otherwise noted. Some stats were available earlier in the ABA. BPM, VORP, DRtg and Per 100 Poss stats since 1973-74. All box score stats are covered all-time (though not all stats were tracked for all of NBA history). Season data: since 1946-47 unless otherwise noted. Playoffs: PTS, FG, FT, FTA, 3P, 3PA complete all-time. All other box score stats (3PA, ORB, DRB, STL, BLK, TOV) complete back to 1983-84. FGA, TRB, AST, PF, GS over 99% complete back to 1975-76. Regular season: PTS, FG, FT, 3P complete all-time. LeBron James: Advanced Table Rkĭata coverage: Game data: since 1946-47 unless otherwise noted. Learn More.Īlready a subscriber? Log in for full results. Go inside the Reference database and access the sports search engine that was made for fans like you. Subscribe to Stathead Basketball for full results.
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