Category: Cleveland Cavaliers Blog

Kyrie Irving injury update: left shoulder strain

Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving experienced a left shoulder injury during last night’s game at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland vs. the Golden State Warriors. He did not travel with the team to Indianapolis and received additional examination, including an MRI, this morning at Cleveland Clinic Sports Health, the results of which confirmed a left shoulder strain.

Irving is now listed as Out for the game against the Pacers tonight.

His status will be updated again prior to the Cavaliers game in Houston against the Rockets Sunday afternoon.

Shawn Marion out around two weeks with hip injury

Cavaliers forward Shawn Marion returned to Cleveland from New York to have his left hip examined at Cleveland Clinic Sports Health.

The results of the exam and imaging revealed a left hip strain. He will undergo a treatment and rehab process and is expected to be Out for approximately two weeks.

The Cavs are 35-22 this season, but have been a much-improved team in 2015. Marion gets decent minutes — 20.0 mins per game — but scores just 4.9 ppg and has played a limited, supporting role this season.

LeBron James elected VP of Players Union

Here’s Yahoo Sports reporting that LeBron James has accepted much more responsibility in a league-wide role working on behalf of all players:

LeBron James was elected first vice president of the National Basketball Players Association on Friday, moving him into the union’s second-most powerful leadership position beneath president Chris Paul, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

Paul had been pushing James to join him in a senior position on the NBPA’s executive committee for several months, and James made himself a candidate for Friday’s union meeting in New York, sources said. The NBPA’s player representatives voted on the new executive committee members in a meeting on Friday afternoon, sources said.

Kevin Love still finding his place on Cavs

Here’s the Cleveland Plain Dealer reporting on Cavaliers power forward Kevin Love, who is averaging 16.8 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game this season and is still working to fit in with the squad:

On Monday Kevin Love scored a season-low five points on 1-of-7 shooting while pulling down a game-high 15 rebounds in a 97-84 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

Rather than the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 11th straight victory receiving the bulk of the attention, Love’s ongoing battle to find a level of consistency within the offense stole the spotlight.

Three days later Love quieted the noise with a game-high 24 points and nine boards to lead his team past the robust Los Angeles Clippers. But in Friday’s 103-99 loss to the Pacers, Monday’s version of Love returned as he registered five points for the second time this week to go with eight rebounds.

He was 2-of-8 from the field, 0-for-4 in the second half. His Indiana counterpart, David West, supplied 20 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

Cavs winning streak ends with loss to Pacers

Here’s ESPN Cleveland reporting on the Cavs, whose 12-game winning streak did not extend to 13 games thanks to hard work by the Indiana Pacers:

It’s a given that all streaks eventually come to an end. Yet, certainly, the fact that the Cleveland Cavaliers’ ended at 12 on Friday night, with a 103-99 loss to an Indiana Pacers team that is 13 games under .500, could be construed as a disappointment.

The loss prevented the Cavs from tying their franchise record of 13 wins in a row (set twice in 2009-10, the last season of LeBron James’ first stint in Cleveland), and, considering they squandered a nine-point lead with eight minutes to go in the fourth, it’s fair to say they blew an opportunity to set a record Sunday at home against the struggling L.A. Lakers.

Yes, the Cavs need as many wins as they can over these final 30 or so games in the regular season to bolster their position in the Eastern Conference standings. The streak did wonders, moving Cleveland into a virtual tie with Chicago for fourth and just a half game behind the slumping Washington Wizards for third, but there is still plenty of ground to make up to catch Toronto (three games ahead at No. 2) and Atlanta (eight games ahead at No. 1 and coming off an impressive 124-116 win over Golden State on Friday).

Here’s ESPN.com reporting that LeBron James wants Ray Allen in Cleveland, and recently made an attempt to recruit him:

While the principal reason LeBron James visited Miami during his recent two-week rest period was to seek out warmer weather while he rehabbed strains in his left knee and lower back, he also had another item on his agenda.

During James’ Miami jaunt, the four-time MVP met with free-agent guard and former Miami Heat teammate Ray Allen to try to appeal to the league’s all-time leader in 3-pointers again about joining the Cavs this season, multiple sources told ESPN.com.

Allen hasn’t played since his 18th season ended with a Finals loss for the Heat to the San Antonio Spurs in June.

ESPN Radio’s Ryen Russillo reported last month that Allen’s message to teams inquiring for his services earlier in the season was to check back with him in January and he would make his decision to return or not — and which team to join if he did opt for season No. 19 — in February.

Here’s the Arizona Republic reporting that Shawn Marion, aka “The Matrix,” will call it a career after this season:

When Shawn Marion headed to the Cleveland bench late in last week’s game at US Airways Center, “The Matrix” was saying goodbye to Phoenix.

Marion said he plans to retire after this season with Cleveland, ending a 15-year NBA career that was mostly spent as a star with the Suns.

When the Suns drafted Marion in 1999, Marion set a goal to play 15 seasons. The 36-year-old believes he could play another three seasons but being away from his first child, 8-month-old Shawn, has convinced him to retire after this season with the Cavaliers.

“I wanted to go out on my terms,” Marion said. “The biggest thing is having a son. I got attached to him. Seeing him periodically is hard. Watching him grow up on pictures and videos is hard.”