CLEVELAND: While the music blared from LeBron James’ speaker a few feet away, Kyrie Irving bounced his head and knees to the rhythm of the beat Sunday. His NBA return behind him, Irving is very clearly getting his rhythm back.
Irving returned from knee surgery to score 12 points in 17 minutes and the Cavs hammered the Philadelphia 76ers 108-86 Sunday for their fifth consecutive win.
Irving missed his first five shots in his debut following June surgery to repair a fractured kneecap. He missed the season’s first 24 games and showed rust early, although he made 4-of-5 shots during one stretch. He returned in the fourth quarter with the Cavs ahead by 32 in order to reach his minutes allotment.
“Kind of been a long, long road,” Irving said. “But finally getting out there with my teammates was a pleasure.”
LeBron James scored 23 points in a season-low 26 minutes and Matthew Dellavedova scored 20 points off the bench, including four 3-pointers. Both marks were season highs for Dellavedova and missed matching his career highs by one.
Irving fractured his kneecap in Game 1 of the NBA Finals and needed 6½ months of rest and rehabilitation. He has been practicing with his teammates for about two weeks, but the team was cautious in planning his return.
“It feels good, just getting this one out of the way,” said Irving, who will get the New York Knicks on Wednesday before the big rematch with the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day. “Everyone was going to make speculation about when I should or when I should not come back, whether Christmas was a big-time game. Honestly for me it was just about getting back when I got the clearance from my doctors, so, whether that be at Christmas or before Christmas, I was going to take their word and trust them.”
He missed his first shot Sunday — a play designed for him that resulted in a wide-open layup — but later James gave him an easy basket after he stole a pass and flipped it ahead to Irving, who had no one between him and the basket.
That first one seemed to get him going a little bit. Irving later shifted through the defense for a layup, made a couple of 3-pointers and scored seven points in 2½ minutes early in the third quarter in flashing the play that made him an All-Star Game Most Valuable Player and two-time All-Star.
“You see a guy like that every day fighting his way back and working hard and going through stages and I think the guys just felt good to see him out there, professionally and also on a human level,” Cavs coach David Blatt said. “I know I did. I was truly happy to see him out on the basketball floor doing what he loves to do.”
Dellavedova returned to the bench to make room for Irving, although Dellavedova entered as the league leader with 3.85 assists per turnover. He matched a season high with four turnovers, although he shot 4-of-6 on 3-pointers and 7-of-10 overall Sunday.
The Cavs took control in the second quarter when they forced 10 turnovers and the Sixers shot 19 percent (4-of-21) in the quarter. The Cavs led by 17 at the half and built it to as many as 35 in the fourth quarter against the league’s worst team.
The Sixers become the first team in NBA history to lose 28 of their first 29 games, something Nerlens Noel acknowledged is getting more difficult to handle. Noel finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds in the losing effort.
“Everybody’s human,” he said. “Everybody has their own frustrations, but you stay positive and you do your best to keep working through it.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.