Cavs Irving Shines During All-Star Weekend
Story By:
Brian Skowronski
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It was quite an experience for Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving at NBA All-Star weekend in Houston the last several days. The defending NBA Rookie of the Year put on quite a show Friday evening in the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge, scoring 32 spectacular points and nearly blowing up Twitter with an ankle-breaking dribbling display that left Pistons guard Brandon Knight on the floor. Irving finished second in the game's MVP voting to Denver's Kenneth Faried, a trophy the second year star won last season as a rookie, but wouldn't have to wait long to collect some more hardware. Despite his impressive 41% career accuracy from down town, Irving isn't typically thought of as a great 3-point shooter but was selected as one of eight contestants to compete in Saturday's 3-Point Shootout. The Cavs star posted a first round score of 18, advancing to the finals where he would represent the Eastern Conference against the top shooter from the Western Conference, Matt Bonner. In the championship round Irving went bezerk, connecting on 17 of his first 18 attempts and finishing with a score of 23 to take the title, the third best single round total ever in the event. Then Sunday evening Irving became just the seventh player in NBA history to play in an All-Star game before their 21st birthday. He came off the bench in the first half, scoring 7 eye catching points, grabbing 2 rebounds and sharing 3 assists. Kyrie got the second half start in place of Boston's Kevin Garnett and finished with 15 pts, 3 reb and 4 ast, knocking down a pair of corner treys late in the 4th quarter to give the Eastern Conference the lead, but his squad would fall to the West 143-138. Needless to say the 20-year-old prodigy opened some eyes with his array of performances at NBA All-Star weekend and he will likley become a cornerstone of the festivities for many years to come. Because of Irving's amazing talents, there has been much speculation that LeBron James will perhaps return to Cleveland after his contract expires next season and the Cavs certainly have the cap space to make a run at the soon to be four time league MVP. But for now, the sixth leading scorer in the NBA will continue to lead his young Cavaliers squad who have played .500 basketball since their multi-team trade on Jan 23 that brought Marreese Speights, Wayne Ellington, Josh Selby and a future first round pick to Cleveland. Last years number one overall draft selection Irving and the Cavaliers (16-37) will be featured on a national broadcast for the first time this season when they host this years first overall pick Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Hornets (19-34) Wednesday night on ESPN.
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