Duke Blue Devils: Kyrie Irving Learns Nothing in Game 2
Former Duke Blue Devils star Kyrie Irving returns to Cleveland looking for some answers in Game 3 that he did not find in Game 2.
It could have different for former Duke Blue Devils guard Kyrie Irving. Did I expect Irving and the Cleveland Cavaliers to beat the Golden State Warriors in Game 2? Not really, I still hold to the idea that the home team should hold home court in the playoffs. Did I expect them to show up at all? Kinda.
Looking back at Game 1 and now at Game 2 there was a storyline of similarity between the two games. The first game saw Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have anomalous performances on the same night. The Cavs still didn’t win.
That meant the Cavs had to repeat that Curry-Thompson effort every game. Game 2 saw the Cavs adjust to nothing and Curry and Thompson return to about normal. The result: a blow out as in the old NBA Jam code confirmation.
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Now Cleveland will get better when they go home for three games. How much better, I’m not sure. My pure interest was to see how Kyrie Irving would react to a game where he got twenty-six points without shooting great and was run around on defense.
The answer was not well. Irving’s scoring was Game 1 was boosted by getting to the foul line. The Warriors did a good job of avoiding that in Game 2. No trips to the foul line meant eleven fewer points for Irving, who had only ten points on the game. His shooting was worse in Game 2 with no three pointers made and a worse shooting percentage.
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Fortunately for Kyrie, I could easily point the finger at Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, or others and ask where their production went. How can Richard Jefferson be your second best performer? Even LeBron did not have a great game.
Unfortunately for Kyrie, this is not how you go about winning the Finals. Irving needs to match or beat the production of points either one of Curry, Thompson, or Draymond Green to help an assumed superhuman James effort. He did that in Game 1, but Game 1 was flukish in many ways.
Cleveland will need Games 3-5, because they have shown winning two in Cali might be too much for them.