Kyrie Irving To Make Season Debut Sunday Against 76ers

Irving scored just two points in the first half, but had seven in the third quarter when he showed a couple moves that have made him one of the league’s premier backcourt players.

“That first game, obviously nerves are high, going up and down for the first time in six months in an uncontrolled environment … it’ll take an adjustment period”.

ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (17-7): Cleveland held a pair of strong Eastern Conference opponents under 80 points in wins at Orlando and Boston before surging at the end to grab a 104-100 triumph over the Thunder.

It took 6½ months of rest and rehabilitation, but the Cavaliers’ All-Star point guard is back.

Now that Irving is back, the Cavs are as healthy as they’ve been since early in the playoffs last season.

The minutes of LeBron James has been a topic of constant conversation this season but there were no such issues on Sunday.

He missed his first look Sunday – a wide-open layup – but later James gave him an easy basket after stealing a pass and flipping the ball ahead to Irving, who had no one between him and the basket. James and Love have been doing good enough to keep Cleveland in the conversation of an National Basketball Association championship, but even they know that they’re going to need Irving to get to the biggest prize.

It would be great to get some sort of indication about where Irving is right now and how it makes the Cavaliers play but frankly, the 76ers are so awful, losing their games by an average of 13.2 points (Los Angeles Lakers only other team with a scoring difference in the negative double figures), it’s impossible to gauge anything or anyone playing against them.

Nerlens Noel finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds for the Sixers (1-28), who were outscored by 67-35 over the second and third quarters.

“We all feel the weight of how poorly we’ve played”, Brown said.

Irving, on the team’s website, said of his performance: “Obviously, the first game back we weren’t trying to push it too hard and I just wanted to go out there and see how it felt”.

“Everybody’s human”, he said.

ABOUT THE 76ERS (1-27): Philadelphia upgraded the front office by bringing in veteran Jerry Colangelo and upgraded the bench by bringing in D’Antoni after giving coach Brett Brown a two-year contract extension. Newly hired associate coach Mike D’Antoni will join the team on Philly’s upcoming trip that starts December 26 in Phoenix. The former number one pick’s return will come after missing the first 24 games of the season. Omri Casspi added 15 points and 11 rebounds and center DeMarcus Cousins had 15 points and taking nine rebounds.