CLEVELAND (Sporting Alert) — Kyrie Irvings will start for the Cleveland Cavaliers in Tuesday night’s closeout Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Atlanta Hawks.
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Irving has been on the sidelines since he aggravated tendinitis in his left knee during Game 1 of this series, but the Cavs confirmed the point guard will play and start on Tuesday night.
According to Yahoo Sports’ Marc J. Spears, the 23-year-old will limited to 25-minutes and could play even fewer if the Cavs take command of the contest early at Quicken Loans Arena.
Australian rookie Matthew Dellavedova had replaced Irving in the starting lineup for Games 2 and 3. He is averaging 6.8 points and 2.8 assists in the postseason.
Irving, who is averaging 18.9 points per game in this year’s postseason, scored 10 points and had six assists in 27 minutes during Game 1 before he was forced out of the contest.
The Cavaliers lead the seven game series 3-0 and can complete a sweep of the Hawks with another victory in Game 4.
Meanwhile, Cleveland’s head coach David Blatt will be hoping to “become first rookie coach to sweep that year’s NBA Coach of the Year in a best-of-7 series,” according to ESPN and Stats.
Blatt also dismissed suggestions that his guard Dellavedova is a dirty player, following incident involving the Australia and Hawks’ Al Horford and Kyle Korver, who Atlanta confirmed will have ankle surgery Wednesday afternoon.
“The kid doesn’t have an unsportsmanlike bone in his body,” the coach said.
