PHOENIX: Kyrie Irving scored a season-high 22 points, including a huge 3-pointer in the final minute, and the Cavaliers survived to beat the Phoenix Suns 101-97 Monday at Talking Stick Arena.
The Cavs survived two potential turning points in the final minute. Clinging to a 96-95 lead, Brandon Knight’s 3-pointer was waived off because of an offensive foul on Tyson Chandler prior to the shot.
Irving then nearly threw the ball away on the Cavs’ ensuing possession, but the Suns were out of position to make the steal and J.R. Smith saved it from going out of bounds. The ball eventually went back to Irving, who made the big 3-pointer as the shot clock expired for the 99-95 lead with 21 seconds left.
Irving missed 5 of 6 3-point attempts prior to that dagger.
Kevin Love scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds while appearing to play through a hand injury in the second half, while LeBron James had 14 points, four rebounds and seven assists. J.R. Smith scored 17 points, including five 3-pointers.
Irving returned after sitting out the loss to Portland and David Blatt changed up the starting lineup, inserting Tristan Thompson and benching the struggling Timofey Mozgov. The Cavs began the night shooting 38 percent in their last three games.
“We probably can’t throw a quarter in the ocean right now,” James said prior to the game, but the Cavs snapped out of that.
James stressed prior to the game the importance of getting off to a better start, which they did by shooting 62 percent in the first half. But they couldn’t put away a Suns team that plays at a fast pace and creates a lot of shots.
The Suns trailed 94-92 with two minutes to play, but the Cavs responded when James drove the lane and passed to J.R. Smith on the perimeter, who swung it to Irving, who passed on a 3-pointer for a floater in the lane to temporarily cool the Suns’ momentum.
The Suns were playing without leading scorer Eric Bledsoe, who is out with a knee injury, and forward Markieff Morris, who was suspended for throwing a towel at coach Jeff Hornacek.
The Suns have been in disarray for weeks, losing 16 of their last 21. They fired two assistants over the weekend and promoted two others while bringing into question Hornacek’s job security.
James passed Alex English for 17th on the all-time scoring list and he passed Stephon Marbury for 22nd all-time in assists.
Love appeared to injure his right hand with 7:32 left in the third quarter. He tried to shake the pain out of the hand for several moments, but remained in the game, although he kept protecting the hand and blew an easy layup on his first attempt after hurting it. He left the game shortly after to ice it and returned with nine minutes to play in the game.
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.