Thank you, Tyreke Evans. In a tight game down the stretch just after it seemed like the Cavaliers had blown it, Evans gave it right back to us and for that, we thank him. Kyrie drained the clutch free throws and gave the Cavs a 93-92 win to put them at 12-17 on the season.
Cavs leaders: Points: Irving, 23; Rebounds: Casspi, 12; Assists: Sessions, 5
Quick Thoughts: With the guard rotation out of order currently due to injuries I'm very happy to finally see Kyrie Irving and Ramon Sessions get a bunch more court time together. I rate them as the 1st and 3rd best players on the team so I'm not happy when they split minutes.
When DeMarcus Cousins made his layup to give the Kings a lead with 2.9 seconds to play it seemed as if the game was lost. Alas, Cavaliers secret weapon Tyreke Evans fouled Kyrie Irving with 0.4 seconds to play with the Kings up one. Evans thought the Kings had a foul to give when the Cavs were already in the bonus. A boneheaded play indeed - and from the Kings, it's not all that unexpected. Apparently that didn't change when Keith Smart took over. (Why do they call him "Smart" anyways? *rimshot*)
Former Cavalier, J.J. Hickson made his return to Cleveland and probably played his way out of Byron Scott's doghouse by being so terrible. In his 16 minutes he scored five fewer points than Ryan Hollins and, of course, missed all three of his attempts from the field. Is he going to even shoot 40% this year?
Meanwhile, Omri Casspi again struggled to score and his 3-12 mark from the field wasn't much better. But, with the poor rebounding Hollins and Antawn Jamison playing many minutes up front, he snagged 12 boards to lead the team.
In one of my (biased) surprise stories of the season, Alonzo Gee again was one of Scott's most trusted players as he had a solid night in his 42 minutes.
Notable performances:
Tristan Thompson, who I have not been high on of late, had 15 points and 12 rebounds to outshine Hickson.
Alright, this one isn't a biased surprise of the season and because of that I'm bolding and italicizing it. Ramon Sessions hit another three and is now 19-44 (43.2%) on the season from deep. Keep in mind in 259 games entering this season he had nailed just 13 of 71 (18.3%) in his career.
Fear the Sword's Player of the Game:
Kyrie Irving
In a close race between the two rookies I'll be giving this one to the future Rookie of the Year. Props on those game winning free throws on an odd night when both he and Love nailed a pair of freebies with their team down one and less than a second left.