Kyrie Irving beautifully finishes at rim vs Wizards

If the Kyrie Irving who scored 21 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 121-115 victory over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday is here to stay, the other teams in the Eastern Conference don’t stand a chance. Conversely, the Cavs have won an astonishing 37 in a row at home when scoring more than 100 points… The three-time All-Star scored 14 points in the second half when Cleveland pulled away enough that LeBron James sat out the fourth quarter.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many games, he’s an All-Star player”, James said. He’s much better than that. He’s 23 years old, and he hasn’t even scratched the surface yet.

NEW YORK – Jonas Valanciunas had 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Toronto handed Brooklyn its eighth straight home loss. “But it sure didn’t look like that tonight”.

Two dunks and a 3-pointer by James, Irving’s layup and Matthew Dellavedova’s 3-pointer keyed the spurt for Cleveland, which led 90-78 going into the fourth. The show Irving put on caught the attention of his teammates, who see how much he’s improving in the weeks since he returned.

Smith’s 3-pointer midway through the third broke a 69-all tie. “To be out months and still be able to come out there and shake and bake like he’s doing is remarkable”.

The Cavs needed a few big performances as the Wizards had one of their best offensive performances of the season.

“We did a bad job of knowing personnel in certain spots of who we wanted to shoot the ball”, Wizards forward Jared Dudley said. “From that point on, we became good friends – good friends with Devon and good friends with Leah”. With an NBA Finals berth seeming like a foregone conclusion this season, Irving’s journey to becoming a superstar really might be the only thing fans have to be invested in during the regular season this year, and possibly for the next couple years.

Washington led going into the second and was up 35-28 when Ramon Sessions hit a three-pointer. “That wasn’t an easy game”. It was a great win that came largely on the back of Kyrie Irving beginning to look like Kyrie Irving again. Still, he understands this is still a process of getting back into form.

And to James, the story of seeing Leah got better when he heard that Devon Still was signed to a reserve/futures contract for the 2016 season by the Houston Texans, who host the Kansas City Chiefs at NRG Stadium in the Wildcard round of the NFL Playoffs this weekend. The Cavs have held opponents to just 88 points over the past 10 games and that combined with the Raptors not exactly operating on all cylinders right now as they work starters back into the lineup makes this a very tough matchup for Toronto. Blatt didn’t have plans for anything like that as his team opened a six-game road swing. LeBron James led the way with 29 points on 11 of 18 shooting while Kyrie Irving added 13 points and Kevin Love had 10 as the Cavs put the game away early, dominating the Magic to lead by 16 points after the first quarter and 23 points at the half before cruising in the second half.