default-cbs-image

Kyrie Irving did it again. With the Cleveland Cavaliers' season on the line on Friday, the extraordinary yet divisive guard hero-balled his way to 40 points on 15-for-27 shooting, going 7 for 12 from deep and showing the world why he's considered one of the most skilled offensive players on the planet. Not that anybody should have needed a reminder.

Last year, when the Cavaliers fell down 3-1 in the NBA Finals, he scored 41 points on 17-for-24 shooting in Game 5, a display that teammate LeBron James called "probably one of the greatest performances I've ever seen live." This was six days before he made one of the most memorable clutch shots in Finals history in Game 7, answering all sorts of questions about his style of play and value to his team. 

He might not be a true point guard, he might not be a top-notch defender, but there is no way Cleveland could have pulled off its miraculous comeback in Game 4 without him, defeating the Warriors 137-116 to trim their Finals lead to ... wait for it .. 3-1. 

Sound familiar?

This time, again facing a Golden State Warriors team looking to clinch a championship, Irving was every bit as impressive. If the desperate Cavs were going to go down in Game 4, they were going to go down with Irving firing away. They had needed every one of his 38 points on 16-for-29 shooting to keep it close against the Warriors in Game 3, but they could not withstand a late run spearheaded by Kevin Durant. No such run was in the cards on Friday, with Cleveland building a 17-point lead in the first quarter, eventually extending it to 24.

Irving said the magnitude of the last two games "hit me in a very deep place." In the first half alone, he had 28 points on 11-for-14 shooting as his team set a Finals record for points in a half by taking an 86-68 lead into the third quarter. 

If you missed the game, you can probably imagine how Irving scored his points. There were dazzling dribbling exhibitions. There were fancy finishes at the rim. There were contested 3s -- he went 5 for 8 on such shots -- and mid-range jumpers off the dribble. These were the same sort of spectacular shots that he was mostly missing in the first two games at Oracle Arena, with the taller and stronger Klay Thompson often draped all over him. The only difference is that they went in. What makes Irving unique, though, is that he is almost impervious to great defense -- just look at his field goal percentage in the regular season, via NBA.com: 

Closest defender

FG%

0-2 feet (very tight)

47.2

2-4 feet (tight)

47.5

4-6 feet (open)

46.9

6+ feet (wide open)

47.8

Let's look at some of those tough shots: Early in the game, Irving got the crowd involved by hitting a step-back 3-pointer while isolated against Stephen Curry.

In the second quarter, he pushed teammate Tristan Thompson into Klay Thompson to create some extra room -- not exactly legal, but this kind of trickery is happening on both sides --  in order to set up a 28-foot 3-pointer off the dribble.

A few minutes later, he freed himself of Thompson coming around a screen, received a pass, hit the 7-foot Durant with a low crossover dribble and then lofted a left-handed floater over him.

In the final frame, when Golden State had cut the lead to 11 points, Irving pulled up for a leaning 3-pointer over David West off a pick-and-roll, swishing it and completely killing the Warriors' momentum. Draymond Green called it "the toughest 3 I've seen all year."

Right after that, he made another lefty floater after a change-of-pace drive against Thompson.

"I shot some tough ones," Irving said. "And, happily, they went in."

When the Cavs absolutely need their shots to go in, they tend to. In that way, Irving's couple of misses near the end of Game 3 were anomalous. Irving said he had those plays on his mind for the last couple of days. 

"He's just been very special in close-out games," James said. "On both sides: us being able to close out or teams trying to close out on us. He's just been built for that moment. I've said that over and over again, that he's always been built for the biggest moments, and tonight he showed that once again. It's not surprising. He's just that special."

Kevin Love called Irving "probably the best ballhandler in the world." Irving said he made a conscious effort to stay aggressive, especially when he had chances to keep Golden State at bay. One of the knocks against him is that he doesn't help his team when he's not scoring, but there is a flip side to that. When he is scoring like this, Cleveland is extremely difficult to beat. And he is one of the elite few who, at the top of his game, can make a team like the Warriors look powerless defensively. 

In this way, Irving is perhaps the biggest X-factor in the entire league. The Cavs know what to expect from James just about every night, but when they're challenged, they essentially go as Irving goes. If they are going to stay alive in this series, they will need more of his individual brilliance.