Kyrie Irving scored a game-high 33 points against the Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night to lead his Cleveland Cavaliers to a 99-98 victory. Had the game gone the other way, the point guard may have ended up shouldering the blame for the loss.
According to Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com, Cavs players were left “scratching their heads” after Irving shot 12-of-28 from the field and had just one assist. With LeBron James sitting out, Irving apparently felt he needed to be Cleveland’s entire offense.
More from Haynes:
After the game, a few players were puzzled to how their point guard managed to register just one measly assist while playing 39 minutes. They were frustrated, but the win and Irving’s huge defensive play lessened the anger.
The notion within the locker room is that the situation is tolerable, because it isn’t permanent. If the Cavaliers were dealt the misfortune of playing without James for an extended period of time, this locker room would be boiling over.
Players are growing tired of Irving’s inability to not only register a proper amount of assists at the lead guard position, but also to just move the ball.
Again, the Cavs won. It’s hard to fault a guy who led his team in scoring in a tight victory while the best player on the planet was riding the bench. But this is not the first we have heard of Irving not connecting with his teammates on the court, as evidenced by this report about the former Duke star and LeBron.
On one play in the second quarter against Dallas, Irving dribbled away the entire shot clock before launching up a horrible shot. Haynes said his teammates were “in disbelief.”
Irving is a talented scorer, but he needs to create more opportunities for his teammates. Keeping everyone involved on a talented team is an important responsibility.
