Duke Blue Devils: Two head to Finals with LeBron
Kyrie Irving and Dahntay Jones of the Duke Blue Devils are headed to the NBA Finals.
The Duke Blue Devils witnessed one of their own, or two of their own in this case, reach the NBA Finals last night. Kyrie Irving will be healthy for the NBA Finals this time, but which will either be a grudge match with Stephen Curry and the Warriors or a slugfest against the star led Oklahoma City Thunder.
Either way, it will be a whole new ball game for Irving and the Cavs. They have been a completely different team this year when Irving and Kevin Love have been productive alongside LeBron James. That was something completely missing from last year’s finals.
Irving’s numbers were good in the regular season but he has kicked it up a notch here in the NBA Playoffs. He is scoring almost twenty-four points a game with a percentage of 45% beyond the arc. Those numbers are four points and thirteen percentage points better respectively. While the Raptors series was often about using Love, Irving has been pretty consistent throughout.
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If we were only interested in Kyrie, then the preferred matchup for the Cavs would be the Warriors. Neither Curry nor Klay Thompson are likely to shut Irving down, but Russell Westbrook of the Thunder would have a legitimate chance to do it.
However the Blue Devils don’t just have the one man on the team of LeBrons. They also have NBA journeyman Dahntay Jones kicking around on the roster. Jones has barely appeared in the series at about four minutes per game.
The only real news that Jones made was landing a groin punch on Bismack Biyombo during the Raptors series. James paid the $80 fine for Jones. For his part, Jones insists that the hit was not intentional. Jones did get suspended for Game 4 with the Raptors, but obviously that did not affect the outcome of the series.
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If it is the Thunder, then Irving and Jones will have the privilege of meeting former Duke star Kyle Singler to decide who takes home the Larry O’Brien trophy.