Cleveland's championship drought will continue: Irving out for the NBA finals

[Auggie]

Fractured knee cap. No way I see the Cavs winning this thing now.

An MRI on Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving's left knee revealed a fractured kneecap, and he will undergo season-ending surgery in the coming days, the team announced Friday.

Irving is projected to be out three to four months, the Cavaliers said. The surgery will be done at the Cleveland Clinic by head team physician Dr. Richard Parker.

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015/story/_/id/13020515/kyrie-irving-cleveland-cavaliers-fractures-kneecap-season-ending-surgery

Cleveland: If it weren't for bad luck they'd have no luck at all.

[JonLP24]

1. He's been hurting

Missed 2 games of the Eastern Conference Finals but you're right on bad luck. First Varejoa which just by itself was huge -- consider the 65 win projection numbers -- http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/cleveland-cavaliers-lebron-james-kevin-love-trade-wins/

The next 3 best players after Lebron James are out. I favor Golden State and this only helps but I don't count them out mainly because of Lebron and has ability to get teammates involved in positions that help them.

[KamaAina]

2. He dropped 44 on us the other night and we still won.

And that was with Irving most of the way.

[JonLP24]

3. I'm not sure the point is here

I know and give Golden State better odds before the series my mention of the not counting them out as for me it is premature to declare the series over and Cleveland took hit after hit, not to mention won games without him in the lineup. Cleveland has done a great job all season of winning despite losing but like the 2014 Cardinals it does get to a point where too much is too much.

On edit -- playing in Oracle is different than playing in Cleveland as I didn't give them high odds to began with no matter whose on the floor but as a general rule in the NBA I don't count a team out until they've had their 2 home games.

[KamaAina]

4. The point is that as great as LeBron is, he can't do it by himself

the titles he won with the Heat featured an All-Star supporting cast (Wade, Bosh, etc.).

You make a valid point about the two home games, though. One imagines the fans who have been waiting for this as long as I've been alive will be amped.

[JonLP24]

5. They have an uphill battle, for sure

He knows and is very capable of getting teammates involved in the right places and Golden State seems to be baiting him into jump shots because early on he very skillfully moved the ball around the shot blockers' long arm to score a driving layup but he knows what it means to play unselfish and win or play selfish and lose which was behind the early season struggles with Irving and after that loss in Phoenix they reminded me of the old two PG system with Kevin Johnson & Jason Kidd which ironically Phoenix brought back themselves with Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight.

One bright spot they have left is JR Smith who has been hitting big shots all post-season, if he continues to hit then I see a better chance of Cleveland surviving but if he misses I don't. I cracked up over Golden State dismissed as a "jump shooting team" when a "jump shooting team" is all Cleveland has left.

[Auggie]

6. Agree. Warriors win unless they screw it up ...

they may be inclined to play with less intensity with Irving out, for example. But I'd expect them to right that ship immediately after the first loss.