CLEVELAND: Kyrie Irving stepped into a 3-pointer from 30 feet away and sank it. Later he spun by two defenders and Euro-stepped his way to the basket early in the fourth quarter.
Irving has been talking for weeks about knocking the rust off, but he looked just fine in the Cavaliers’ 122-100 victory against the Toronto Raptors on Monday night.
Irving scored a season-high 25 points while adding eight assists and six rebounds and LeBron James had 20 points and seven assists while sitting out the fourth quarter on a night all five Cavs starters finished in double figures.
Guard Kyle Lowry had 23 points and 10 assists and guard DeMar DeRozan had 19 points for the Raptors, who twice rallied from big deficits before the Cavs pulled away for good in the fourth.
“They play as hard and as together as anyone in the league, except for San Antonio,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said of the Cavs. “If you don’t bring your ‘A’ game against them, you’re going to be embarrassed.”
The Raptors weren’t embarrassed, but they couldn’t keep pace in the fourth when they went scoreless for more than four minutes, allowing the Cavs to turn a seven-point game into a blowout.
A jumper by backup center Timofey Mozgov extended the Cavs’ lead to 108-87 with 6:13 left, the first 20-point lead of the game.
The Raptors rallied from 13 down in the first half to take a brief lead in the second quarter. They tied the game at 69 in the third quarter on a 3-pointer from James Johnson, who was starting at forward in place of the injured DeMarre Carroll (knee). But James’ 3-pointer to close the third pushed the lead back to 90-78 and the Cavs weren’t threatened again.
Guard J.R. Smith made a season-high eight 3-pointers to score 24 points, while forward Kevin Love had 14 points and nine rebounds and center Tristan Thompson had 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Cavs, who have won four straight to improve to 15-1 at home.
The Raptors beat the Cavs at Toronto in late November when the Cavs were missing half of their rotation. Things changed dramatically Monday in large part to Irving, who continues to work his way back from offseason knee surgery.
Irving shot just 29 percent in his first three games back from a fractured kneecap, but has shot 48 percent in his last three. He has scored at least 20 points in two of his last three games and his eight assists Monday were also a season high.
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.