CLEVELAND: As he was dressing at his locker a few days ago, Kyrie Irving was asked about his plans for All-Star weekend.
“Catch up,” he said.
Judging by his past few games, he doesn’t have far to run.
Irving indeed has been playing catch-up since missing the first two months of the season following knee surgery, but if his recent performances are any indication, Irving is back. All the way back. At least his coach thinks so.
“I think he’s there. I think he’s there right now,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. “Now his shot’s falling — his 3-point shot. The last few games, he started to make that shot. That makes him even more dangerous.”
Now eight months removed from knee surgery, Irving ranks fourth in the league in scoring since Jan. 29. He entered the All-Star break averaging 26.9 points and shooting 56 percent in his past eight games, including 57 percent (8-of-14) from 3-point range.
There was a time when it seemed like Irving needed the All-Star break to strengthen his legs and get his body right to play the tempo Lue wants. Now that it’s here, however, Irving is playing his best basketball of the season.
“I hate more than anything for him that he has to get a break because he’s in such a great groove right now,” LeBron James said. “He’s just laser sharp right now. It’s more than just his game. It’s his focus right now that I haven’t seen from him in a long time.”
Irving began the season a career 39-percent shooter from 3-point range, but he has wallowed around 25 percent most of this season. He believes his recent surge has nothing to do with his legs and everything to do with confidence.
He noticed guards dropping under the screens on pick-and-rolls, daring him to shoot while taking away driving lanes.
“I took that as disrespect,” he said. “Just came in the gym, got extra shots up and trying to prove a point to myself. Just out there shooting the ball. It’s just shooting a 3-point shot and I feel like I’m pretty decent at it, so I work on it a ton.”
Irving’s offensive emergence has stoked a team surging in scoring. The Cavs ranked 17th in offense under David Blatt, but have climbed to ninth and are now averaging 102.9 points per game. The Cavs are averaging 108.5 points since Lue took over, which ranks sixth in the league since Jan. 22.
But there is still plenty of work to be done. Free-throw shooting remains a lingering problem, the Cavs have let inferior teams back into games far too often and the ball movement remains stagnant at times. Even Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant noticed it when discussing the Cavs’ title chances this season.
“They certainly have the pieces,” Bryant said. “The biggest challenge for them is being able to change sides of the floor continuously and move the ball continuously. It becomes very difficult in the playoffs.
“When you have so many individual players [like] LeBron and Kyrie, it’s very easy just to give them the ball and everybody watch. … I think if Cleveland gets to that point where they’re really attacking on the back side, then I think they become extremely lethal.”
That’s one of the Cavs’ goals following the All-Star break. There are others. Lue, for example, is still learning how to be a head coach.
Asked to describe how his transfer from assistant to head coach as gone, Lue responded “One word? Hard. Two words? Very hard.
“But I’m learning. I’m picking it up and we need to continue to find stuff that works for us. We’ve got to keep getting better. That includes me, also.”
Kevin Love is expected to be ready to return when the Cavs return from the All-Star break for a game against the Chicago Bulls on Thursday.
Love suffered a stinger in his left shoulder Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“At the time I didn’t know really what it was,” Love said. “Just like when you get hit on the funny bone the elbow has shooting pain, it felt like fire was running down my arm.”
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.