HoopsHype.com Rumors

New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, 7.6 points: Shooting 48.3% from the floor, including 40% on threes, while taking 5.1 shots per game in the fourth. Averaging 1.7 rebounds in the fourth. Cleveland guard Kyrie Irving, 6.6 points: Shooting 84.5% from the line and 43.9% from the field – just 27.1% on threes. Los Angeles Clippers guard Jamal Crawford, 6.5 points: Logs serious minutes in the fourth quarter – 10.7 per game and is shooting 92.5% from the foul line. Shooting 43% from the field and 36.8% on threes in the final quarter. USA Today Sports

Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks, Carmelo Anthony, Jamal Crawford, Kyrie Irving 

Jessica Camerato: BBVA Rising Stars Challenge sophomores: Irving, Faried, Knight, Leonard, Parsons, KThompson, TThompson, Vucevic, Walker #NBA Twitter @JCameratoNBA

Cleveland Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving, All Star Game 

Cleveland Cavaliers' guard Kyrie Irving and the San Antonio Spurs' guard Tony Parker have been named Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, Jan. 21 through Sunday, Jan. 27. Irving led the league in scoring at 35.7 points per game, guiding the Cavaliers to a 3-0 week. He scored at least 32 points in all three games, finishing the week with a .612 shooting percentage from the field (41-of-67 field goals) and a .950 shooting percentage from the foul line (19-of-20 free throws). Irving poured in 40 points on 16-of-24 shooting from the field in a 95-90 win over the Boston Celtics on Jan. 22. USA Today Sports

Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, Tony Parker, Kyrie Irving 

Byron Scott could only smile. "Great coaching, that's all that is," he joked after his All-Star point guard, Kyrie Irving, hit a 3-pointer with .7 seconds left to lift the Cavaliers to a 99-98 victory over the Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night. The fifth game-winner of Irving's career, and second this season, enabled the Cavs to improve to 13-32 and post their first three-game winning streak of the season. It also was just their second win on the second night of a back-to-back in 14 tries. Cleveland Plain Dealer

Cleveland Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving 

Much as they did in Friday's victory over Milwaukee, newcomers Speights, Shaun Livingston and Wayne Ellington brought the Cavs back, and a tip-in by Thompson gave the Cavs an 80-79 lead with 8:47 left, their first lead since the first quarter. Irving took it from there, with 12 points in the final period. It was his first victory over Toronto in four tries. (He was injured for the victory in Toronto on April 6 last season.) "Hell, yeah, I wanted to get a win," Irving said. "It's personal for me. I've been in the NBA a year and a half and haven't gotten a win against Toronto. To get a game winner here and beat them on their home court feels good." Asked what was going through his head when the ball went through, Irving said, "'Let's get out of Toronto, let's go home, fellas.' That's all I was thinking." Cleveland Plain Dealer

Cleveland Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving 

Chris Herring: J.R. Smith was also gracious in saying that he was happy to see another NJ native, Kyrie Irving, become an All-Star at such a young age. Twitter @HerringWSJ

Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith, All Star Game 

LeBron James: Huge S/O to @Kyrie Irving & @Paul George on their All-Star selections! Big time homies Twitter @KingJames

Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, LeBron James, Paul George, Kyrie Irving, All Star Game 

Steve Kyler: Eastern Conference reserves are Jrue Holiday, Paul George, Kyrie Irving, Luol Deng, Chris Bosh, Tyson Chandler and Joakim Noah Twitter @stevekylerNBA

Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Chris Bosh, Paul George, Luol Deng, Tyson Chandler, Joakim Noah, Kyrie Irving, Jrue Holiday, All Star Game 

John R. Finger: hearing Kyrie Irving is in but no Nets made it … announcement any second. Twitter @jrfingerCSN

Cleveland Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving, All Star Game 

Marc J. Spears: .@Kevin Durant says Stephen Curry, David Lee and Kyrie Irving should be All-Stars. Durant also called Irving a Top 5 PG. Twitter @SpearsNBAYahoo

Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder, Kevin Durant, David Lee, Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving, All Star Game 

Luol Deng: Man @kyrieirving handles is sick. The basketball is like a yoyo in his hands. Twitter @LuolDeng9

Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Luol Deng, Kyrie Irving 

There would be seven new All-Stars next month in Houston if the 16 NBA players polled by HoopsHype had their say. Cavs guard Kyrie Irving, Knicks center Tyson Chandler, Warriors guard Stephen Curry, Pacers forward Paul George and Rockets guard James Harden received tremendous support in the voting while Sixers guard Jrue Holiday and Bulls center Joakim Noah squeaked in for the last spots. All-Star veterans like Tim Duncan, Chris Bosh or Paul Pierce also made the list while the usual snubees - Atlanta's Josh Smith, Milwaukee's Monta Ellis, Memphis' Rudy Gay - were left out. HoopsHype

Paul Pierce, Rudy Gay, Chris Bosh, Monta Ellis, Paul George, Tyson Chandler, Josh Smith, James Harden, Joakim Noah, Stephen Curry, Tim Duncan, Kyrie Irving, Jrue Holiday, All Star Game 

But please don't think all the Cavs are doing is Waiting For LeBron. Those reports about how they have "no contracts" on the books for the 2014 -15 season are silly. Consider these players and salaries: Kyrie Irving ($7.1 million), Tristan Thompson ($5.1 million), Dion Waiters ($4.1 million) and Tyler Zeller ($1.7 million). All are team options -- and you can assume the Cavs will pick up all of those deals. Anderson Varejao has a $9.78 million contract for 2014-15, with $2.5 million guaranteed. Cleveland Plain Dealer

Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Free Agency, LeBron James, Anderson Varejao, Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, Tyler Zeller, Dion Waiters 

Steve Luhm: Jazz point guard Jamaal Tinsley on the Cavs' Kyrie Irving: "... He could be great." Twitter @sluhm

Cleveland Cavaliers, Utah Jazz, Jamaal Tinsley, Kyrie Irving 

Mary Schmitt Boyer/Jodie Valade: #Cavs coach BScott clarifies comment on whether Irving should make All-Star team: "Does he deserve to make it? You damn straight.'' Twitter @PDcavsinsider

Cleveland Cavaliers, Byron Scott, Kyrie Irving, All-Star 

Mike Tokito: Postscript to #Blazers' loss to Cavs: Damian Lillard thought Kyrie Irving double-dribbled, but said he needed to play better D on the play. Twitter @mtokito

Cleveland Cavaliers, Portland Trail Blazers, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard 

Yet, in an informal poll of seven NBA officials — two general managers, an assistant general manager, two advance scouts and two players — Irving and Holiday received more votes than either Jennings or Ellis. Irving and Holiday were two of four guards chosen in the poll for the Eastern Conference team. The others were Boston’s Rajon Rondo and Miami’s Dwyane Wade, who were chosen as starters in fan voting. Joining the four backcourt players on the Eastern team were eight frontcourt players, including Miami’s LeBron James and New York’s Carmelo Anthony, who were also voted as starters by the fans. Racine Journal-Times

Cleveland Cavaliers, Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers, Monta Ellis, Brandon Jennings, Kyrie Irving, Jrue Holiday, All Star Game 

Robert Horry laid into former teammate Kobe Bryant while speaking at the ninth Lakers All-Access event at Staples Center. "[When] Kobe is on the weak side, he needs to start paying attention to where the ball is and not be flying around, thinking he's some stealth bomber where he can get steals nonstop," said Horry. The Lakers (17-21) have struggled this season as a team to play defense, and Horry put a sizable share of the blame on Bryant. "That's the only reason you won two games, you solved the problem," continued Horry, speaking of Bryant's move to covering point guards Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks. Los Angeles Times

Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Kobe Bryant, Brandon Jennings, Kyrie Irving, Robert Horry, Staples Center 

"I've just been trying to play like an All-Star this whole entire season, trying to keep that mind-set," Irving said before the Cavs faced the Portland Trail Blazers in The Rose Garden on Wednesday night. "Whatever happens, happens. Obviously, anything could happen in the next month, so I'm just going to continue to play the way I've been playing and try to get my team wins." Irving was the MVP of the Rising Stars game during All-Star Weekend last season, and when asked if he'd like to return and play in the regular All-Star Game this season, his answer was obvious. "Yeah, absolutely," he said Wednesday. "But that comes with playing every single night and just doing what I do." Cleveland Plain Dealer

Cleveland Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving, All Star Game 

When asked about Irving's potential on Sunday he did not fawn over his young point guard's potential as much as you'd think. "It really depends on Kyrie, how good he wants to be," Scott said. "In talking to him, he wants to be one of the best. Right there, that’s a good start. A lot of it just depends on how hard is he willing to work to get there. That’s going to be the key. Like I said, talent wise, he has just about as good of talent as anybody in the league at that position." What about Paul? "Chris as the same age, probably one of the toughest kids I’ve seen at that age and probably more determined than I’ve ever seen anybody," Scott said. "His competitive nature was probably as high as I’ve seen anybody at that age." Sulia

Cleveland Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving