Written by Thomas Moore

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The Cleveland Cavaliers will be without point guard Kyrie Irving for at least a month after it was revealed on Monday that Irving has a hairline fracture in his left index finger.

Wonderful.

Irving is currently fifth in the NBA in scoring at 22.9 points per game, is shooting 39 percent on 3-pointers, handing out 5.6 assists and pulling down 3.7 rebounds for the Cavs, who are currently at 2-8 on the season and riding a six-game losing streak heading into Wednesday’s game against Philadelphia.

The finger was clearly bothering Irving on Sunday night against the Sixers, as he shot just four-of-14 from the field, scoring a season-low nine points.

This is just the latest injury to sideline Irving in his very brief career. He famously only played 11 games in his one year at Duke; couldn’t make it through an abbreviated NBA season as a rookie, missing 15 games; and broke his hand after slapping a wall during a practice with the Cavs Summer League team in Las Vegas.

In addition to Irving, forward/center Tristan Thompson suffered a nasal fracture during the game against Philadelphia and will play for a while with a protective mask, joining Tyler Zeller in the team’s masked men group.

The injury news can’t sit well with coach Byron Scott, who is already in a pissy mood over the poor start to the season and struggling to figure out what to do about the Cavs bench.

“If I said I had the right pieces from the bench standpoint, then I’d be lying,” Scott said last week. “I’m not going to sit here and say I’m satisfied with the way our bench is playing because I’m not. I know our bench can play a lot better than they’ve played.”

The Cavs are 20th in the NBA in scoring, averaging 95.7 points per game, but are 29th in points allowed, 102.7, and last in field goal percentage as the only team in the league to be allowing its opponents to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor (.503).

Scott reluctantly gave the team a day off on Monday, the Cavs first since Nov. 4, although he didn’t sound happy about it.

“Always kills me to take a day off,” Scott said. “I’ll give them the day off; I won’t take the day off.”

We may not see a lot of winning in Cleveland, but no one can ever say it is dull around here.

(Photo by The Associated Press)