INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving fought his way through the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Chicago Bulls on an injured right foot and a left knee suffering from tendonitis, and after closing out the series in six games, he will sit and rest his injuries.
Irving sat out Saturday's on-court work and will continue to rest his ailing legs ahead of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Atlanta Hawks, which begin with Game 1 Wednesday at Philips Arena in Atlanta.
"We sat Ky out, and he's going through a lot of treatment," Cavaliers coach David Blatt said Saturday. "We're monitoring and hope he progresses from here on out until game time. We determined that he's going to rest. Going forward, day to day, we'll see how he's feeling and what he can do with it.
Despite being hampered by the injuries, Irving averaged 17.5 points, 2.7 assists, 2.2 rebounds and 1.3 steals over 34.7 minutes in six games against the Bulls.
"Guys are back and recovering from a very tough series," Blatt said. "Overall, health is pretty good and spirits are good. Fortunately, we have some days here between our last game and the start of the next series, so the guys that are needing the treatment or the rest are getting it, and the guys are working as normal."
Cavaliers small forward LeBron James said he and his teammates were feeling "probably as bad as we were the other night," and that is why he took Friday's off day as a chance to recover from the physical six-game series with the Bulls.
"We don't feel much better today than we did whenever we just played, but we should feel better by Wednesday," James said.
"I'll lock in tomorrow. I'll lock in tomorrow and get ready for the next series. Yesterday, I took the day off and did absolutely nothing but play with my kids, do whatever they wanted to do, including basketball, which I did not want to do. They made me go out on the court. Today, I was able to get some work in, but I'm not where I would like to be. I'm not going to lock in this early, but I will be back to my normal self tomorrow."
In addition to Irving and James, who battled through back and knee issues in the series-clinching win over the Bulls, the Cavaliers almost lost starting center Tristan Thompson to an early fall in Game 6.
Despite an awkward landing on his left shoulder after getting undercut by Bulls small forward Mike Dunleavy while tipping in a lob pass from reserve guard Matthew Dellavedova, Thompson shook off the contact and buried the free throw to give his team the advantage heading into second quarter. Thompson led the Cavaliers with 10 points and four rebounds in the first quarter.
"That guy, to me, is rare," Blatt said of Thompson. "He doesn't get hurt easily, but that was a bad fall, a very bad fall. The fact that not only did he get right up, but then, he played through it (after) he took a pretty good hit on the shoulder, just speaks volumes to the type of kid he is. He's fearless, and he's going to keep going."
