The Cleveland Cavaliers biggest fear has come to fruition as Kyrie Irving has now been diagnosed with a fractured knee cap that will take 3-4 months to recover, ending his first NBA Finals appearance.
Kyrie Irving collapsed as he was driving with the ball with two minutes left in overtime, stumbled and grabbed his left knee as he went down. His left knee has been bothering him with tendonitis for the past six weeks and plagued him ever since the second round series against the Chicago Bulls.
Kyrie Irving was in obvious pain as he went back into the locker room and was seen on crutches as he left the arena.
Initial tests done by the Cavs' medical staff revealed no damage to Irving's anterior cruciate ligament or medial collateral ligament, but an MRI on Friday revealed the fracture to his kneecap.
This is a devastating blow not only to the Cavs but to Kyrie Irving who was more than impressive playing less than 100% in game 1. He tallied up 23 points on 10-of-22 shooting 4 steals and a game-saving block near the end of regulation against regular season MVP, Steph Curry. It was bad enough losing Kevin Love earlier in the playoff but now with the loss of Kyrie Irving it'll be more than difficult to overcome against a deep Warriors squad.
Some will question Cleveland coach David Blatt's decision to play Kyrie Irving 43 minutes but Irving was more than effective and almost helped the Cavs steal game 1.
This puts the distributing and scoring role even more so on the shoulders of LeBron James who will have to put up an even more Herculean effort in game 2 and for the rest of the series.
Matthew Dellavedova will be asked to step in and contribute immediately but Irving will be sorely missed as the Cavs were outscored by 13 points in game 1 when he was off the floor.
Advantage Golden State Warriors.