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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;OAKLAND, Calif.\u2014There would be no answers until morning at the earliest, no prognosis for Kyrie Irving\u2019s knee and by extension, for the Cleveland Cavaliers\u2019 chances of winning the NBA championship until the sun came up. Answers, no, but hints? There were plenty of those. There was Irving, the Cavs\u2019 All-Star point guard on whose questionable health the series could turn, leaving the locker room on crutches after their 108\u2013100 overtime loss to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night. There was the way he grimaced in pain when he went down during the overtime period and took off his jersey in frustration as he limped off the floor toward the locker room after playing magnificently to that point. The game still hung in the balance, but Irving knew his night, at the very least, was over. &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There were no answers, but there was Irving\u2019s intuition. \u201CI don\u2019t know exactly what happened,\u201D he said. \u201CIt\u2019s a little different than the other time. I\u2019m a little worried.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So are the Cavs. Asked if he had heard anything about Irving\u2019s condition after the game, Cavs guard J.R. Smith said, \u201CNo, nothing. You heard anything? Let me know if you hear something. Seriously. Let me know.\u201D But on this night, the Cavs\u2019 eyes told them more than their ears. \u201CIt was very tough to see,\u201D LeBron James said. \u201CI just see how hard he worked these last eight days just to get himself to play at this level tonight. Seeing him walk out of the locker room on crutches just now, that's a tough blow for our team.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;MORE NBA: Best photos from Game 1 | Cavaliers' near-winning formula&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was an even tougher blow, perhaps, than the loss itself. Irving had spent the eight-day layoff before the Finals diligently rehabbing his left knee, which was suffering from tendonitis. After missing Games 2 and 3 of the Eastern Conference finals against Atlanta, he played in Game 4, but he didn\u2019t seem particularly optimistic about his chances of being effective against the Warriors. \u201CI\u2019m just going to will myself to play,\u201D he said before the series, adding that there was \u201Cno way\u201D he would be 100%.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But on Thursday night, it seemed for the longest time that Irving had been sandbagging, because he looked great, outplaying Stephen Curry until the injury occurred, and the Cavs looked more than capable of making this a long, competitive series. For 48 minutes, the Cavaliers could hardly have asked for more. Everything they needed to happen to stay with the Warriors was happening. James was in hero mode, scoring 44 points in one of the greatest postseason games of his career, which is saying quite a lot. Tristan Thompson was all over the backboards, so relentless that his official numbers\u2014six offensive rebounds and 15 total\u2014made it seem that the stat sheet was cheating him. Timofey Mozgov was outplaying Golden State's Andrew Bogut, beating him down the floor and converting enough pick-and-roll feeds from his teammates to chip in 16 points.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And more encouraging than any of that was Irving, who finished with 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists, looked frisky and dangerous again. He flew coast-to-coast after a Golden State turnover and finished a difficult layup over Draymond Green. He broke down Warrior defenders with deft ballhandling that reminded everyone that Steph Curry isn\u2019t the only player in this series who can do magical things off the dribble. He even blocked two of Curry\u2019s shots, the second one denying the league MVP what seemed like a sure layup with 26 seconds left and the game tied at 98.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CKyrie was doing his thing,\u201D Smith said. \u201CHe was feeling good, and we were all feeling good.\u201D When the game went into overtime, there was the feeling that no matter the outcome of Game 1, the tenor of the series had changed because Irving was back.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But then he was gone again. Driving against Klay Thompson during the overtime, he took a hard step and his knee seemed to buckle beneath him. Irving\u2019s father, Drederick came down from the stands into the locker room area to check on his son, but he offered no comment to reporters. \u201CI can\u2019t give you any specifics yet,\u201D Cavs coach David Blatt said after the game. \u201CI just don\u2019t know.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;MORE NBA: Iguodala hits three with just one shoe&amp;nbsp;| Curry schools LeBron&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;All that was known was that Irving would have an MRI on Friday. \u201CI hope he can play,\u201D Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. \u201CI mean that. You probably don\u2019t believe me, but I mean that. I hope he\u2019s OK for the rest of the series.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Everyone does, no one more than the Cavaliers. As spectacular as James\u2019 performance was in Game 1, he clearly needs a consistent second scoring option for the Cavs to have a chance in this series. \u201CWell, it\u2019s next man up,\u201D James said, when asked how badly Irving\u2019s absence would hurt the Cavs. But of course, it\u2019s not that simple. The Cavaliers have two days to regroup before Game 2, but their future may depend less on what happens on the court Sunday than on what happens in a doctor\u2019s office before that. There were no answers about Irving on Thursday night, and for Cleveland that might have been a good thing. When they finally come, the Cavs may not want to hear them.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GALLERY:&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Sports Illustrated's&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;best photos from Game 1 of NBA Finals&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/nba/2015/06/05/kyrie-irving-nba-finals-game-1-injury-cavaliers-warriors-lebron-james>