Earlier this season, as the newly-formed Cavaliers were still getting to know each other, LeBron James was critical of Kyrie Irving for finishing a game with zero assists.
“He came up to me and was like, ‘One, you can never have another game with no assists,’ ” Irving said, via Cleveland.com. “ ‘You can damn near have just one, two, three, but you can’t have zero.’ And I was like, ‘All right, cool, it won’t happen again.’ And it hasn’t happened since that game.”
It happened again on Friday.
Irving was playing on a sore foot, and finished Cleveland’s Game 3 loss with 11 points, four rebounds ... and zero assists.
LeBron was asked about the no-assist performance from Kyrie, and whether or not the injury he was dealing with warranted “giving him a pass.” While there was nothing wrong with asking this type of question on the surface, the fact that Irving was sitting right next to James made it somewhat ridiculous.
“None of us get a pass tonight,” James said. “It’s not just Kyrie. Kyrie could have had 40 assists, but if D Rose still makes that shot, we still lose.”
LeBron’s response was predictable, especially with his teammate sitting within arm’s reach. And Irving’s reaction was priceless.