The Cleveland Cavaliers have gotten back on track after two straight losses by winning three in a row to move their record up to 11-3 which is tops in the Eastern Conference. The scary thing about this Cavaliers team is that they are doing this without one of their best players in point guard Kyrie Irving who has yet to appear in a game this season. A return date is not yet available for the All-Star point guard but it is being reported that he is expected back before January, according to Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.
This report comes two weeks after there was another report stating that Irving might be back in a couple of weeks. Overall Irving's return date has been hard to pin down but with each subsequent report we are getting closer and closer to figuring out when he will actually be back. By process of elimination it would seem as though Irving will most likely be back at some point in December and that seems like a safe bet.
Irving has been playing some 5-on-0, getting up some pre-game shots and even played LeBron James in a friendly game of one-on-one, according to Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com. According to multiple reports Irving looked extremely good during this one-on-one session and "destroyed" LeBron as he was "in the zone."
Irving injured his knee back in the NBA Finals and was initially expected to be ready for the start of the regular season but he and the Cavs instead decided to take it slow. This is proving to be an extremely wise decision as the Cavs haven't seemed to miss a beat without him and they know the important thing is having their star point guard healthy for the stretch run and the playoffs.
In Irving's absence both Mo Williams and Matthew Dellavedova have filled in very nicely at the point guard spot but they will go back to being backups once Irving is healthy. The likelihood is that Irving will be on a minutes limit when he returns but Cavaliers fans will surely take any minutes from him at this point and it seems like a return is getting very close.
