Bad News Cleveland
Things didn’t look good last night down the stretch for the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, especially in overtime when Kyrie Irving went down on a play and clutched at his knee on a routine drive to the hoop. The Cavs point guard hobbled to the locker room and could be seen in serious pain, as folks speculated what the injury could be and how long he could be out. Kyrie was quoted after the game saying this felt “different” than in the past, which only raised red flags concerning the situation. The team said they were going to run MRI’s today and the prognosis is worse than they could have imagined: Kyrie has a fractured knee cap and will require surgery.
Cleveland will be out with their All-Star point guard for the remainder of the NBA Finals and his timetable for a return looks to be about 3-4 months.
As most that have been keeping up with the NBA playoffs know, Irving missed two games in the series against the Atlanta Hawks with knee tendinitis. There has been some friction between management and Kyrie’s camp about how many minutes he should be playing because it is clear he’s not 100% and his camp is looking at the long-term picture rather than just right now. After playing 44 minutes and having a stellar Game 1, it seems as if Irving strained his legs a little too much and will now have to miss the rest of the Finals. This is exactly what his camp warned management about, but now things are a little too late to fix.
The injury is a major blow to the Cavs, who now have to bounce back from a 1-0 deficit to Golden State on Sunday at Roaracle Arena with all the momentum on their side.
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