When LeBron James declared during training camp that "this is Kyrie [Irving's] show" it was meant more of a figurative passing of King James' cape and scepter as ruler of the team than a literal premonition of the star turn that Irving would assume.

lebron james maillot,But after Irving's "spectacular" performance at Madison Square Garden on Thursday in the Cleveland Cavaliers' 90-87 win over the New York Knicks -- we used quotation marks around "spectacular" because that is the very same adjective used by both James and Cavs coach David Blatt to describe Irving's night -- James' words from back then seem totally spot on.

Irving scored a game-high 37 points as the Cavs extended their season-best win streak to five games in a row. It wasn't just that he was efficient, because he was, going 12-for-18 from the field overall, 3-for-6 from 3 and 10-for-11 from the line. It wasn't just that he was clutch, which he was in scoring the game-sealing layup with 10 seconds left to push Cleveland's lead to three and force the Knicks' hand to go for 3 on their final possession (which Carmelo Anthony missed).

It was the style in which he did it. There was one possession on which he seamlessly combined a spin move out on the wing with a crossover at the foul line extended, capped off with a layup that looked easy only because he had already pulled off those difficult moves in succession.

There was this reverse layup that is so mesmerizing and so satisfying, seeing Irving put such delicious English on the ball, that it makes you realize, "Oh, so that's why Vine exists."

"Well, I always knew he was a great finisher," James said. "I think he's better than I even thought. As far as finishing around the rim, he's probably one of the greatest this game has ever seen. I've never seen someone finish how he finishes underneath the rim. It's unbelievable. From both hands."

The timing of Irving's virtuoso performance couldn't be better from both a personal and team standpoint either. On the personal front, Irving was debuting his new signature sneaker -- the Nike Kyrie 1 -- at the world's most famous arena.

"He released his shoe and wore them for the first time and then put up those gaudy numbers in the Garden," said James, sounding like a true pitchman pulling out all the stops with the alliteration. "That's what we do at Nike. You know, spectacular."

In terms of team, hardly anybody else had it going, and the Cavs gladly rode Irving's coattails. James was bothered by a sore right elbow, shooting 7-for-17 and not really finding any sort of rhythm until the fourth quarter, when Irving found him with back-to-back assists. Kevin Love shot just 4-for-11 en route to 11 points after averaging 25.3 points in the Cavs' past three games. The bench (surprise, surprise) was outscored by New York's reserves 42-10.

"Anytime we needed a bucket, he made it," James said. "Anytime we needed some energy, he gave it. I took over the point guard duties, as far as getting guys involved, and he took over the scoring and we needed it."

Irving spearheaded a redemptive night all around for these Cavs, as they got to make up for some of the miscues they've already made in the early going. Not only did they get the Knicks back for raining on their parade on opening night, but they did it with James racking up 12 assists against four turnovers rather than his 4-to-8 assist-turnover line on Oct. 30. And while Anthony made a late jumper over James on the baseline to close the Cavs out back then, this time James did enough, making Anthony uneasy with his one-on-one defense on the final possession that he missed.

Then there was the come-full-circle aspect for Irving, who took a lot of flak for his questionable shot selection, as he went 3-for-17 in a loss to Portland earlier in the season followed by an equally scrutinized 34-point, zero-assist game the next night in a loss to Utah. He showed how far he's come since then in striking the balance between his scoring and others', as evidenced by those well-timed assists to James against the Knicks.

And it was good for Blatt, too. Back when the Cavs lost to the San Antonio Spurs 92-90 last month when James lost the ball on the Cavs' final possession as he frantically tried to push it up the floor, Blatt was called out for putting his star in that position to begin with. In that game, Blatt called three timeouts in a span of 53 seconds earlier in the fourth quarter, leaving James without a timeout release valve by the time the game's deciding possession was unfolding.

Jeudi, c'était le timeout de Blatt avec 16,8 secondes à jouer dans le quatrième qui a mis en place fin lay up de clés d'Irving. Seulement Irving ne voulait pas le délai d'attente, perdre son sang-froid quand il a vu que Blatt tentait d'arrêter le jeu.

« Kyrie fait beaucoup mieux quand il joue que quand il est entraîneur, » Blatt a déclaré par la suite avec un sourire narquois sur les lèvres, Rappelant la réaction d'Irving.

Pendant le délai d'attente, Blatt a identifié correctement comment défense des Knicks serait mis en place dans cette possession cruciale. Bien sûr, Irving a toujours fait, comme l'expliquait Blatt, en tant qu'un coup de « fantastique » à sceller, mais le délai d'appel, l'entraîneur a pu non seulement alerter Irving quant à ce que D attendre, mais aussi a été en mesure d'organiser les joueurs Cavs à l'offensive pour donner amplement d'espace pour l'exploitation d'Irving.

« J'ai confiance en lui à 100 %, » Irving dit interrogé sur son inclinaison initiale pour rejeter l'appel de timeout. "J'ai vu quelque chose de différent là-bas. Mais c'est juste une partie du jeu. Il a appelé timeout, a élaboré un diable d'une pièce de théâtre, m'a confié le ballon à la fin du jeu, et nous sommes juste à s'habituer à un autre... "

"Je suis content que je suis avec entraîneur Blatt, écoute juste pour lui, et il est tel un grand entraîneur et il a un tel esprit de basket-ball et nous sommes certainement instiller confiance dans ce qu'il est en train de parler tout."

Tout comme Blatt, James et le reste des Cavs sont confiants Irving tout de suite.