CLEVELAND: Kyrie Irving missed his second game with a sore right hamstring Monday when the Cavaliers hosted the New Orleans Pelicans. Jordan McRae started again in his place.
Coach Tyronn Lue said the team has not done any sort of imaging and they’re still calling it “tightness” in the hamstring. Lue originally thought Irving wouldn’t miss any time because of it and now isn’t making any predictions about when Irving might return. The Cavs next play Wednesday when they host the Chicago Bulls.
McRae scored a season-high 20 points in Saturday’s win at the Charlotte Hornets. Lue also liked his defense on Hornets guard Nic Batum.
“It’s hard to score the basketball when you’re playing spurt minutes and you’re not really in the rotation every single night,” Lue said. “Giving him the chance to start [against the Hornets], he came in and he produced and he played well. So hopefully we get the same input from him.”
McRae never told his parents he was starting at Charlotte because he didn’t want to put extra pressure on himself to perform. He just let them find out when they turned on the television to watch. The sporadic playing time has been difficult.
“Just trying to get a lot of reps,” McRae said. “I try to play as much as I can throughout the week, play one-on-one with Shump [Iman Shumpert] and Ky [Irving] a lot and just trying to stay ready.”
Mike Dunleavy will also miss his second game with a sore right ankle he also injured against the Celtics.
Old friends
Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry spent the 2013-14 season coaching with Lue when both were assistants on Doc Rivers’ staff in Los Angeles. Gentry said he could tell then Lue would be a head coach some day.
“I think if you talk to anybody that has been around him, just his work ethic alone and what he did, he has such a thorough understanding of the game,” Gentry said. “He’s got a great relationship with the players, yet he’s able to discipline him. That’s such a fine line in this business. He’s really a unique guy. He’s not one of those guys that seeks public approval on anything. He’s confident with who he is and he wants to be a great coach. He’s going to work at it and do everything possible he can.”
Gentry, incidentally, was one of three finalists for the Cavs’ coaching job when David Blatt was named head coach in 2014. Gentry and Cavs General Manager David Griffin are close from their days together with the Phoenix Suns.
“I don’t think about that. I really don’t,” Gentry said. “Obviously they made the right decisions. I enjoyed it. One of the things I do think is you have an owner here that he’s going to do everything he possibly can to win a championship. I think as a coach, that’s all you ever ask for.”
Dribbles
LeBron James surpassed 20,000 shot attempts in the first half Monday. … Lue cancelled the team’s morning shootaround Monday because of the lack of healthy bodies and conceded he may do it more often moving forward.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.