Duke Blue Devils: Irving Needs to Improve on Game 1 Showing
Former Duke Blue Devils guard Kyrie Irving scored twenty-six points in Game 1 but showed flaws that must be corrected for the Cavs to fin the series.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have seen what a Finals series without former Duke Blue Devils player Kyrie Irving looks like. That was last year when an injured Irving could do nothing but watch as LeBron James tried to one man band against the Golden State Warriors. It would be easy enough to say that Cavaliers should do better with Irving than without him.
Game 1 of the NBA Finals was a test of that idea. It was a strange test as well since the game was largely decided by the depth of the Warriors bench. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were not the Michael Jordan–Scottie Pippen outfit that they normally are. The most excitement came when Andre Iguodala got hit low by Matthew Dellavedova. That sentence did not contain the word LeBron or the word Irving.
Dellavedova has two things in common with Irving. He plays guard for the Cavaliers. He was also born in Australia. The things that Dellavedova is known for has to do with crafty defense. Defense has the missing element in Irving’s game during the playoffs. Irving can normally hold an opponent to 50% shooting, but that has increased to 60% in these playoffs according to Kyle Wagner of 538.com.
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Yet the Cavs really weren’t pushed in their playoff series so it is understandable that Irving wouldn’t necessarily risk himself on defense. His performance against Curry and the Warriors was usually better than against normal teams. Last night’s game saw Irving run into screens and end up with bigger players in the post. Not a good sign since that kind of strategy by the Warriors is predictable.
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Yet it wasn’t just Irving’s defensive effort that could cause problems. Irving scored 26 of the blandest points you will ever see. He shot seven of twenty-two from the field and barely registered from the three point arc. He did get to the foul line a lot. This could be important since his foul line appearances will likely only increase when the series moves to Cleveland.
Still the Cavs did not intend for Irving to shoot 31% from the floor and 25% from the three. There should be better looks than that. Hopefully Irving can both find them and learn from his game one defensive tape or else the Cavs could be in for some trouble in the long run.
The good news of course is that Game 1 was a road game, and a series does not start until a road team wins a game.