CLEVELAND — Boston’s Gordon Hayward broke his left ankle just five minutes into the season, a grisly injury that overshadowed Kyrie Irving’s return to Cleveland and the Cavaliers’ 102-99 win over the shocked Celtics on Tuesday night.
LeBron James scored 29 points — 13 in the fourth quarter — in his most extensive action in three weeks because of a sprained left ankle. He also fed Kevin Love for a critical 3-pointer with 46.3 second left to put the Cavs up 102-98.
Irving, who asked to be traded this summer after six seasons in Cleveland, had a chance to tie it with a 3-pointer at the horn but missed. Irving then shared a warm embrace with James, his teammate for three seasons.
Irving finished with 22 points for the Celtics, who overcame an 18-point deficit in the third and led with 2:04 left.
Love had 15 and Derrick Rose 14 in his debut for the Cavs.
No video
The Cavaliers decided not to show a tribute video of former point guard Kyrie Irving during his first game at The Q playing for the opposition.
According to team spokesman Tad Carper, multiple Cavs officials, including majority owner Dan Gilbert, chose not to show the video because “we were expecting to run it at a floating opportunity based on the right moment, and we felt that moment never presented itself.”
Carper spoke to cleveland.com and two other reporters at halftime of the Cavaliers’ season opener against the Boston Celtics. Irving was traded to the Celtics in the offseason after requesting to be dealt out of Cleveland, which upset several Cavs players.
Carper said the decision to cancel the video was not “directly” tied to the gruesome ankle injury to Celtics guard Gordon Hayward with 6:50 left in the first quarter, either.
A source with direct knowledge of Cavs’ players thinking told cleveland.com that several inside the Cleveland locker room were upset Monday upon hearing that a video was planned.
Carper said the decision to cancel the video was not made because of the Cavs’ players’ objections, and he said no objections had been voiced to him.
Irving was roundly booed when he was introduced as a Celtic.
