On his day, pound-for-pound, Kyrie Irving can be the best basketball player irrespective of who else is on the court. Be it, LeBron James or Stephen Curry.
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He proved that when the Cleveland Cavaliers were facing the Golden State Warriors in Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals in Oracle Arena.
The Warriors were up 3-1 in the series after stealing Game 4 in Cleveland, 108-97, and taking an unsurpassable lead. No team had ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Playoffs history, let alone the Finals.
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But something was erupting inside LeBron James and Kyrie Irving that led them to defeat a 73-9 Warriors team, 3-games in a row who did not have even a single back-to-back loss in the regular season.
When LeBron James saw the most incredible live performance of his life – the Kyrie Irving show
Both of them had some surreal performances to do the impossible and take Cleveland to 3-straight victories against the team that had finished with the best record in NBA history.
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They had by far the best offence and the best defense in the league. But what the Cavs duo did in Game 5 to that defense was truly magnificent, especially the 6’2 Duke point guard.
LeBron, who himself had 41 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks in the game, had himself the closest view of a live performance that would be the greatest and most efficient Playoffs performance of all time.
Irving was 17/24 in the game while shooting 5/7 from the 3-point line, which cumulated to a 70.8% shooting night and 80.7% TS.
That game made the then 24-year-old a legend in Cleveland. A combined 49 crucial points in the next two games won the Cavaliers their first trophy in franchise history and cemented him as one of the greatest point guards of all time.
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