Cavaliers Can Keep Pace with Warriors, Spurs with a Healthy Kyrie Irving

If the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs are the Maseratis of the NBA, consider the Cleveland Cavaliers a brand new Mazda. 

Cleveland's 17-7 record and plus-5.6 point differential are impressive until you compare them with the best of the West. Golden State isn't just beating teams, it's obliterating them. At 25-1, the Warriors win by an average of 13.5 points per game, more than twice that of the Cavaliers.

Darren Abate/Associated Press

San Antonio isn't far behind. If not for Golden State's record-breaking start, the Spurs' 22-5 mark and plus-13.4 differential would be the talk of the NBA.

All three squads are loaded with talent. LeBron James and Stephen Curry are the two best players on the planet. Adding LaMarcus Aldridge to an aging Spurs squad thrust the championship window back open and stuck a cement block in the way.

But Cleveland is due for a major, not-to-be-underestimated upgrade in the form of All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving, who appears set to make his debut any game now. In the race to the top of basketball's grandest mountain, Irving gives the Cavaliers the firepower they've lacked since June to keep pace with the Warriors and Spurs.

Cavs Without Kyrie

Even without their star floor general, and with just a brief appearance from his starting backcourt mate Iman Shumpert, the Cavs are the best team in the Eastern Conference.

At 17-7 following an impressive 104-100 win over the fully stocked Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday, Cleveland holds a 1.5-game lead over the Chicago Bulls for first place in the East.

Without Irving, arguably the team's best offensive player, the Cavaliers have instead relied on their defense to win games.

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Cleveland has held opponents to an average of just 96 points per contest, good for third in the NBA. Its scoring—a solid 101.6 a night—is just 13th, well below the 103.1 points it racked up a season ago.

Irving's injury came with positive and negative side effects: an enhanced role for Kevin Love and over-reliance on James in crunch time.

Now, the 23-year-old is nearing his return, as WKYC's Matthew Florjancic noted:

"I've kind of been itching the last few weeks," Irving said, "but finally getting my trainer's clearance, as well as our organization to go out there and practice with the guys, have five-on-five, going up and down, being able to hit guys a little bit and guys hit me, as a competitor, I've been itching for that."

The Cavaliers are a good team, perhaps a Finals team, without Irving.

With him, they are elite.

Inside the Numbers

Matthew Dellavedova has been great in Irving's absence, but he doesn't have the playmaking ability that Irving possesses. Mo Williams helps make up for Irving's offense, but at nearly 33 years old, he isn't breaking many ankles these days.

As much as the Cavaliers would like to swing the ball and find the hot hand, the tendency to slow things down and find James or Love has been too tempting.

Consider how all three offenses currently operate:

Stat (NBA Rank)	Off. Rtg	Iso Freq.	AST%	3P%
Warriors	113.1 (1st)	6.2% (21st)	67.8 (1st)	42.7 (1st)
Spurs	106.1 (3rd)	4.9% (27th)	63.6 (3rd)	37.1 (4th)
Cavaliers	104.8 (4th)	8.6% (6th)	60.6 (10th)	36.3 (7th)

When it comes to sharing the ball and converting from deep, nobody in the NBA is on the level of Golden State and San Antonio.

Cleveland proved in the Finals that, even shorthanded, it could slow down the Warriors offense. But when it came to providing their own firepower, the Cavs stood no chance.

This is where Irving comes in.

One of the most electric ball-handlers and elite shooters in all of basketball, Irving can single-handedly move the Cavaliers up the rankings in key offensive categories.

Cleveland scored 10.3 more points per 100 possessions with Irving on the floor last year. The team's effective field goal percentage also rose from 48.8 percent to 53.3. In the process, Irving finished second on the Cavs and ninth in the NBA with 21.7 points per game and led the team in three-point shooting (41.5 percent). This success rate from deep landed him behind only league MVP Curry among all point guards.

Having Irving will allow the Cavaliers to move away from LeBron isolationss, also known as their primary offensive strategy in close fourth quarters. James is the hardest-working player in the league during the final period with a 41.8 percent usage rate, per NBA.com.

With Irving, Cleveland will have three elite offensive players who can touch—and score—the ball on any possession. This should help contribute to more open looks, especially from the outside, and better assist rates. 

A three-point contest champion in 2013, Irving has the purest stroke of any Cav. While Cleveland has been spacing the floor and attempting nearly as many threes as Golden State (27.5 per game to 30.9), its success rate hasn't been quite as good (36.3 percent to 42.7).

The last two teams to lead the league in three-point percentage also won the NBA championship. Not coincidentally, they happen to reside in Oakland and Texas.

Irving's elite shooting ability from deep lifts the Cavaliers into another realm—perhaps not good enough to hang with the Warriors over the course of a season but maybe just enough for them to take four out of seven games.

Greg Swartz is the Cleveland Cavaliers lead writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @CavsGregBR. Stats via Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise sourced and current as of Dec. 17.