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Ripped by the Raptors
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Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving tries to get past Toronto Raptors’ Jose Calderon, back, and Amir Johnson (15) during the first quarter of their NBA game Monday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. Irving, the No. 1 overall draft pick out of Duke, scored only six points in his NBA debut as the Cavaliers fell 104-96.
Cavaliers’ top pick Irving struggles in pro debut
Associated Press
cleveland
Kyrie Irving didn’t dwell over his dubious debut for more than a minute.
Life in the NBA moves too quickly for reflection.
“It’s on to the next one,” he said. “To survive in this game you have to have that attitude.”
Cleveland’s rookie guard scored just six points and hardly played like the No. 1 overall pick as the Toronto Raptors spoiled Irving’s entrance into the pros with a 104-96 season-opening win over the Cavaliers on Monday night.
Irving, who played just 11 games as a freshman at Duke before leaving, finished just 2 of 12 from the field — he made a meaningless 3-pointer in the final minute — with seven assists and one turnover in 26 minutes. The Cavs are counting on the 19-year-old to turn around a team that won just 19 games last season.
“It’s disappointing,” Irving said. “You want to play really well when the whole world is watching. It’s a learning process.”
Toronto, which went only 22-60 last season, won its first game under coach Dwane Casey. He was an assistant last season for the champion Dallas Mavericks.
DeMar DeRozan scored nine of his 15 points in the fourth for Toronto, which had seven players score in double figures. Jose Calderon scored 15 points with 11 assists, Amir Johnson had 13 points and 13 rebounds, Leandro Barbosa scored 14 and Andrea Bargnani 13.
“It’s one game,” Casey said. “I don’t want to get too excited on wins and I don’t want to get too upset on losses. There are 65 more games.”
Ramon Sessions led the Cavaliers with 18 and rookie Tristan Thompson, taken three picks after Cleveland selected Irving, added 12.
Alonzo Gee had 15 points and Anderson Varejao 14 points and 10 rebounds for Cleveland, which pulled within 82-80 on Daniel Gibson’s layup with nine minutes left, igniting a crowd at Quicken Loans Arena hoping to see the Irving era start with a win.
But DeRozan came up big down the stretch, scoring nine points in the final six minutes. His jumper from the right corner put the Cavs away in the final minute. Toronto seemed to make the right pass whenever it needed one, and more often than not, the shot went in.
“This is not a democracy offensively,” Casey said. “We want to make sure we get the ball where we want it to go. This is not a my-turn game. It’s not a rec league game. We want to make sure our offensive players who are closers get the basketball.”
Although it was assumed Irving would start, Cavs coach Byron Scott didn’t inform the youngster that he would be on the floor for the opening tip until the morning shootaround. Scott broke the news to Irving by telling him to “put on a red [practice] jersey on.” Cleveland’s starters wear wine-colored tops during practice.
Scott offered Irving some advice before his first game as a pro.
“I told him to relax and have fun,” Scott said. “You only get to do this once, where it’s your first NBA game. I told him to enjoy the moment, but when that ball gets thrown up to get back to business.”
Afterward, Scott wasn’t disappointed with his young point guard.
“He looked OK,” Scott said. “For playing in what was probably his fifth game in a year, he looked all right. The only thing he didn’t do was shoot the ball well.”