Cleveland Cavaliers: Lowry-Irving Will Be the Biggest Matchup in This Series

The Cleveland Cavaliers, after a week of rest, return to the court tonight, and having Kyrie Irving dominate Kyle Lowry will be huge.

Kyrie Irving may have scored over 25 points per game in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ opening series, but his inefficient play was still a concern. Lowry also seemed to a mask of himself in the opening series. Both of these players have something to prove.

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Both of these point guards had subpar first rounds, but both of these points guards are elite, All-Star caliber point guards that will break out. The question is when they break out, who will win the battle.

When Lowry plays Cleveland, he is usually a boom-or-bust player. In their six games in last years Eastern Conference Finals, Lowry had 70 points in games 4 and 6 combined, and then he had 51 in the other four combined. Whichever Kyle Lowry shows up will determine not if Cleveland wins but just by how much win.

Irving, on the hand, needs to work on attacking. He settled for 21.9% from three on 8.0 attempts per game in their first series, and he must put Lowry to WORK on the defensive end. Defense wears down players. This is certainly part of the reason that Lue kept Smith on Paul George all last series. Guess what? That energized LeBron enough to absolutely dominate offensively.

This will be the biggest single matchup that this series has to offer us. Two elite point guards giving their all is always thrilling. Remember, this will definitely be a game-by-game battle. I fully expect both Lowry and Irving who trade off destructive performances this series.

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I think this series will be ended in Cleveland in five games. Some call me crazy.

So tell us what you think in the comments below!