NBA

Kyrie Irving Did Something Special in Game 1 Against the Raptors

The Cavs blew out the Raptors, but Irving made sure to do something unusual anyway.

Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving is oddly polarizing, but no matter how you feel about his potential or his place among the game's best point guards, you have to agree that he can be really fun to watch at times.

Remember these killer moves on Brandon Knight?


No? What about this one from last night during the Cavs' Game 1 blowout win over the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference Finals?

I believe that qualifies as 🔥.

But Irving did something pretty unprecedented last night.


Did you see it?

No, he didn't surpass any great scoring milestone, but he dunked. Why is that special? Well, he did that just once during the entire regular season.


And not since February 1st.

He didn't dunk in the 2014-15 playoffs but did throw down four times during the 2014-15 regular season, the last one on March 10th, 2015.


That dunk looks familiar...

If you're wondering which dunk preceded that, it was this fastbreak stuff against the Golden State Warriors on February 26th, 2015.


And in case you didn't catch on, his last two dunks before that during the 2014-15 season were basically identical. Oh, and his two dunks in 2013-14? You guessed it.

You'd have to go back to the 2012-13 season to see Kyrie do anything other than his now patented glide.

Even though he needs a new dunk package for his NBA 2K character, Irving is flat out getting things done in the postseason. His Effective Field Goal Percentage through Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals of 58.1% is fourth-best all-time among playoff guards with at least 18 field goal attempts per game over five or more contests.

And it's just a smidgeon away from Klay Thompson's 58.4% and Stephen Curry's 58.3%, both of which are being maintained in the current playoffs.

It's nice to see Kyrie have some lift, but it's even better to know that he's shooting as well as Golden State's net-burning backcourt.

He'll need to keep the pace if Cleveland wants to cash in on their 26.2% chance to win the NBA Finals.