Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving says he’s ‘back’ on Twitter

Kyrie Irving #2 of the Cleveland Cavaliers drives to the basket against the Philadelphia 76ers during the game on December 20, 2015 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. It was the first time since April 26 that the Cavs were able to deploy Irving, LeBron James and Kevin Love in the same game. To get himself back to the All-Star level he was playing at before his injury, Irving has hitting the gym every morning at 6:30 a.m. Irving showed off some of his regimen in this revealing Nike Training video. “I’ll probably go home and let all my emotions out, but I’m pretty excited to be back out there with my brothers”.

“The mere fact that we had Kyrie, Shump, Bron and Kev on the court at the same time, we haven’t seen that for a long time, so it was a good feeling”, Cavs coach David Blatt said. Marshall and Irving’s rivalry dates to high school and continued in college, with Marshall at North Carolina and Irving at Duke, though they never played against each other in college with Irving out for an injury. The Sixers will need to win one of their next two games to keep pace with the ’09-10 Nets, who also started 0-18 on their way to 70 losses.

Irving said he has had to learn patience during his ordeal. The obvious candidate was T.J. McConnell, the undrafted point guard out of Arizona who parlayed scrappy summer-league play for the Sixers into a roster spot. The rookie, who has averaged 21.3 points while shooting 50 percent in his last six games, totaled 42 points in the first two meetings with the Cavs. It is unquestionably punishment from coach Brett Brown, no matter how he tries to mask it, as he attempts to get his team to play better defense.

Assistant coach Joe Prunty will direct the team in Kidd’s absence, general manager John Hammond said after the game. Fans gathered around TVs at halftime to catch up on the action….

Will Barton scored a career-high 32 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Denver, which lost Darrell Arthur (right knee soreness) and Danilo Gallinari (left ankle sprain) while dropping its second straight.

Chris Bosh scored 29 points and Hassan Whiteside added an impressive double-double of 22 points and 11 rebounds to help the Miami Heat defeat the Portland Trail Blazers 116-109. Guard Iman Shumpert is listed as questionable because of a groin strain. Omri Casspi added 15 points and 11 rebounds and center DeMarcus Cousins had 15 points and taking nine rebounds.