CLEVELAND — On this night, 19-year-old Kyrie Irving led the Cavaliers in the wrong direction.

The rookie committed six of Cleveland’s season-high 25 turnovers Tuesday in a 105-95 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena, where paid attendance was announced at 13,056.

“They were definitely big, starting with me,” Irving said of the miscues. “I had six out there. We have to learn from them.”

More photos below.

The No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft had plenty of company, as Anderson Varejao committed four turnovers and Daniel Gibson, Alonzo Gee and Ramon Sessions had three apiece.

Sessions was particularly bad late in the third period and early in the fourth, when Cleveland (6-7) went from being up seven to down five.

“At times, we were throwing it around like it’s not that important,” Cavs coach Byron Scott said. “That little round ball is pretty important.

“It’s hard to turn the ball over 25 times in a game. It really is.”

The Cavs made it look easy, committing 14 miscues in the second half — seven in the third and fourth quarters — to lose on owner Dan Gilbert’s 50th birthday.

“It was just carelessness,” said Irving, who had 18 points, a career-high eight rebounds and five assists in a career-high 36 minutes. “It comes back to some laziness out there. We’re going to pick it back up.”

Down 12 late in the second quarter after a 15-1 Golden State run, Cleveland regrouped to go up 72-65 in the third. The Cavs, however, fell behind by two at the end of the quarter and then got outscored 24-16 in the decisive final period.

Golden State (5-8) power forward David Lee did most of the damage, finishing with 29 points on 13-for-20 shooting and nine boards. Lee had 13 points and five rebounds — three on the offensive glass — in the fourth quarter.

“He’s a little unorthodox,” Scott said. “He just kept taking the ball to the basket. We didn’t do a very good job.”

The primary victims were Antawn Jamison (19 points, five rebounds) and Varejao (10 points, 13 rebounds), veterans who at times seemed to forget Lee was left-handed.

Of course, at the offensive end, Cleveland guards seemed to forget what color uniforms their teammates were wearing.

“Twenty-five opportunities we didn’t even get to take a shot,” Scott said. “(It’s) hard to win.”

It’s even harder when a normally productive Cleveland bench gets outscored 50-31, as it did by the Warriors, who got 17 points and 10 assists from Nate Robinson and 14 points apiece from Dominic McGuire and Klay Thompson, the younger brother of Cavs guard Mychel Thompson.

With Gibson starting due to a back injury to Anthony Parker and scoring just six points in 36 minutes, the Cavs’ most productive reserve was center Semih Erden, who tied a career high with 14 points in 16 minutes.

Rookie Tristan Thompson, who is still learning he doesn’t have to shoot just because he is open, was 2-for-9 from the field and 1-for-3 at the line, but did have nine rebounds.

Sessions had eight points on 3-for-9 shooting and Gee just four on a 1-for-3 performance, but the Cavs might have been able to overcome all that if they had taken better care of the ball.

“You turn the ball over 20-something times, you don’t give yourself much of a chance to win a ballgame,” Scott said. “It was no different tonight.”

Varejao did extend his streak of games with at least 10 rebounds to eight and the Cavs won the battle of the boards 54-43, but the Warriors held an 11-9 edge in the final quarter.

It all added up to a tough loss for Cleveland, which was playing at home for the first time in two weeks after going 3-4 on its longest road trip of the season.

The Cavs played the previous day in Charlotte — they are 0-3 on the second day of back-to-backs — but Scott didn’t attribute any of his team’s struggles against the Warriors to that.

“That’s an excuse,” he said. “That’s something we’re not going to tolerate. We just lost a game because we were terrible on the offensive end with turnovers.”

Second chances

• Varejao became the first Cleveland player to have at least 10 rebounds in eight straight games since Tyrone Hill, who went 10 games in a row from Feb. 1 to Feb. 23, 1997.
• The 7-foot Erden was 6-of-8 from the field and 2-of-2 at the line. He had 10 points in 10 first-half minutes, but didn’t get a rebound. He finished with three, two on the offensive glass. Erden also provided a lighthearted moment when, after fouling the 5-9, 180-pound Robinson on a drive to the hoop, he caught the point guard in the air to prevent an awkward fall.
• Golden State guard Monta Ellis, who began the night sixth in the league in scoring at 23.7 ppg, had 10 points on 2-for-12 shooting from the field. He also suffered a bloody nose late in the game courtesy of an inadvertent Varejao elbow.

Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.

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