CLEVELAND: In this season of growth, Kyrie Irving learned a valuable lesson Sunday night. Along the way, he also won another game for the Cavaliers.
The first pick in the draft met the last pick, and the last pick nearly won. But Irving calmly stepped to the line and sank a pair of free throws with 0.4 second left to give the Cavs a 93-92 victory over the Sacramento Kings.
Irving had 23 points, but Kings rookie point guard Isaiah Thomas had 23 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds in his second start. Thomas was the final pick in last summer’s draft, but nearly carried the Kings to the victory. Instead, they dropped their fifth straight.
“It was in my head,” Thomas said. “I would be lying if I said it wasn’t. He was the No. 1 pick, I was the last pick. I mean, why not? That’s extra motivation.”
Cavs coach Byron Scott saw it, too. And while he didn’t mention anything to Irving about it after the game, he said he’ll make it a point to discuss it at practice on Monday.
“Isaiah looked at Kyrie for what he is: ‘You’re the No. 1 pick and I’m going to go at you,’ ” Scott said. “He took it personally and I didn’t think Kyrie took it personally. I don’t think Kyrie had the same respect for him to start the game. I think he has a little more respect for him now.”
The Cavs took a 91-90 lead when Alonzo Gee split a pair of free throws with 6.2 seconds remaining, but the Kings’ DeMarcus Cousins took a pass from Thomas for a reverse layup with 2.9 seconds left for a 92-91 advantage.
The Cavs immediately called timeout and made Irving the triggerman at half court. Irving inbounded to Antawn Jamison, who gave it right back to Irving at the top of the key. Irving saw the lane open and tried to drive to the basket, but the Kings’ Tyreke Evans reached in and surprisingly fouled him, sending the 84 percent free-throw shooter to the line with a chance to win it.
“I hit the ball, but they called a foul,” Evans said. “Nothing I can do about it now. In a game like that, I think it’s a bad call.”
The Cavs didn’t think there was much debate about whether it was a foul. They lost a game 10 days ago when Jamison missed a pair of free throws in the final seconds, but Irving didn’t have that problem. He hit a game-winner on a drive to the basket three weeks ago at Boston; now he has won one at the free-throw line.
“It’s no different from the beginning of the game when you’re driving to the basket and somebody fouls you,” Irving said. “Those late-game situations, I enjoy them. It’s a fun situation to be in. It’s something you dream of.”
The Kings had two chances to win after Irving’s free throws, but couldn’t get a shot off either time. Coming out of a timeout, the Kings had the ball at half-court and Evans in-bounded the ball off the rim, but the clock started even though no one had touched the ball.
Both teams were forced to line up and do it again and Cousins missed a shot at the buzzer, but it was waved off anyway because he didn’t get it off in time.
The Kings are 0-4 on their six-game swing through the East, while the Cavs moved to 2-1 since losing Anderson Varejao to a wrist injury.
“We got a little lucky,” Scott said. “I didn’t think we played the way we’re capable of playing. I thought we were kind of messing around in the first half. In the second half, that team had a lot of confidence they could win the game and we tried to turn it on. You can’t just turn it on and off, so we got lucky.”
Jamison had 21 points and Tristan Thompson had 15 points and 12 rebounds. Thompson continues to emerge after his second sprained ankle and is proving to be the Cavs’ best option at center in the fourth quarter.
Scott has started Semih Erden since Varejao’s fractured wrist and said he never gave much thought to starting Thompson, but the rookie might be forcing him to reconsider. Erden had no points (one shot), three rebounds and four fouls in 16 minutes.
“Whenever you go down [to injury] as a rookie, you have to get the groove back,” Thompson said. “Tonight I wanted to play hard, play active and we got the win.”
Sunday marked J.J. Hickson’s first game back at Quicken Loans Arena since the Cavs traded him over the summer. Hickson said before the game he was unhappy with the trade, then went scoreless in 16 minutes off the bench.
Omri Casspi, whom the Cavs acquired in the deal, had six points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.
