Kyrie Irving Injured His Left Shoulder

Late in the third quarter of last night’s game between Toronto and Cleveland, Cavaliers star point guard Kyrie Irving absorbed a hard foul from Jonas Valanciunas along the baseline. Irving’s left shoulder was in too much pain for him to go on, and he left the game (which the Cavs lost 100-96.) Per the Plain Dealer: “All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving needed help putting his Duke sweatshirt over his head after the Cavaliers’ 100-96 loss to the Toronto Raptors Sunday, a clear indication that his left shoulder contusion was far more painful than watching his team flounder through another awful third quarter. Asked how the shoulder felt, Irving said, ‘It feels like crap.’ […] ‘I wouldn’t call it a cheap shot or anything like that, but I’ve done that play a lot of times and I’ve never come up feeling like this,’ he said softly after the game. ‘It is what it is.’ He was asked about taking the hip from Valanciunas and said: ‘I just remember falling on the floor. That’s it.’ He said he took no solace that X-rays at the Air Canada Centre were negative. ‘It still doesn’t feel right,’ he said. ‘So, not really. No solace in that.’ While heading to the bench and then back to the court to shoot the free throws, he seemed more worried about the front of the shoulder, trying to move his jersey to show it to Luke Walton. ‘I was afraid to touch it,’ Irving said. ‘I was unsure what was going on. I’ll go back home, get a few more pictures and see what it feels like tomorrow.’ He was asked if he could compare it to the sprained right shoulder that caused him to miss 10 games near the end of last season but he said: ‘No. Totally different.'”