Kyrie Irving Says Flagrant Foul on Justin Anderson Was to Protect LeBron James

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving revealed his flagrant foul in the first quarter against Philadelphia 76ers forward Justin Anderson was meant to serve as payback for an earlier play against LeBron James. 

On Friday, the officials assessed Irving a flagrant-1 less than 90 seconds into the contest at Quicken Loans Arena for shoving Anderson in the back as he was running to the sideline to retrieve the basketball.   

"Whether it was malicious or not...I kinda saw Justin kinda lower his shoulder and knock down Bron," Irving said, per ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst. "I was like...I gotta do something; I've got to protect my brother. A lot of late hits on Bron, a lot of guys trying to get one over on him. It's over for that, it's over for that."

James was appreciative of what Irving did.

"He was protecting me from getting shoved," James said. "It's about it being a brotherhood around here and not letting anything happen to each other."

To Anderson's credit, he took the whole thing in stride and didn't think Irving was acting out of line. 

"He was just protecting his teammate; I think he saw LeBron went down," he said, per Joe Noga of Cleveland.com. "It was nothing to argue about. I get it. It wasn't a dirty play on my end, and I don't think it was dirty on his. I was fine, and we kept moving on."

The Cavaliers won the contest 122-105 to snap a three-game losing streak. The team needed a jump-start after a disastrous March in which it went 7-10, as it is entering the last two weeks of the 2016-17 regular season a half-game behind the Boston Celtics for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. 

The Cavs still have to figure out how to improve a defense that ranks 22nd in efficiency, per Basketball Reference, but the victory was a positive first step. 

Irving's actions may have helped bring back some swagger Cleveland lost during the past month.