The Cleveland Cavaliers needed to find someway to stay afloat in the Eastern Conference standings with a pair of big injuries to their backcourt.
Iman Shumpert and Kyrie Irving started the season on the injured list with no clear end point in mind. There was talks about their returns possibly on Thanksgiving, coming back for their Christmas day matchup against the Golden State Warriors and even having Irving return in January.
Thanksgiving has passed and as the Christmas holiday arrives, it appears that the Cavs starting backcourt has taken another big step in their process to getting back on the court for the Cavs.
Following from ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
For the first time all season, both Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert joined their teammates on the practice court Monday.
Irving, five months removed from surgery to repair a fractured left knee cap, and Shumpert, two months into rehabbing his surgically repaired right wrist, were both in a full sweat by the time the door swung open to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ practice court and media was allowed in to watch.
Despite the monumental step for the Cavs’ intended starting backcourt, a Cleveland spokesman said neither Irving nor Shumpert have been medically cleared for full-contact basketball activities yet.
“We were able to engage them in moderated fashion for the practice,” said Cavs coach David Blatt. “We had a moderated practice that we were able to get them to take part in a good piece of it. Day to day, making a little bit more progress.”
Right now, Cleveland sits atop of the Eastern Conference with a 13-4 record, 1.5 games up on the Indiana Pacers. Their plan to stay afloat has worked out better than expected.
It’s the Eastern Conference and LeBron James has proved he can lead this ragtag team of players to great heights but can he keep doing it? His back is all types of messed up so it might be time for LeBron to take some time off when Kyrie gets back into the swing of things.
