LeBron on Irving: 'The kid is special'

Thursday night belonged to Kyrie Irving. 

The Cleveland Cavaliers point guard had the game of his life, the most dominant individual display of the season and one of the most epic performances in years.

Irving was a man amongst boys against the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs.

When he wasn't putting on a dribbling clinic, he was nailing contested, buzzer-beating 3-pointers to keep the game alive en route to a career-best 57-point performance.

"A few of those shots, it just left my hands and I kind of threw them up at the rim and I was lucky enough and blessed enough that they went in," Irving told reporters after the Cavaliers' thrilling 128-125 overtime win.

Teammate and four-time MVP LeBron James described Irving's historic night best. 

"The kid is special, we all know it, we all see it," James said. "For him to go out and put on a performance like he did tonight was incredible."

It's the second time this season Irving has left the basketball world in amazement. Less than two months ago, he recorded the first 50-point game of his career to topple another Western Conference heavyweight in the Portland Trail Blazers. 

Here's a look at how the two games stack up: 

Irving set a Cavaliers single-game scoring record, his 57 points is the most in the NBA this season and he's the first player since Kobe Bryant in 2006-07 to drop two 55-plus point games in the same campaign. 

James and Rick Barry are the only players in NBA history to record more 50-point games than Irving before their 23rd birthday. The list of achievements goes on.

"He was outstanding every time we had an opportunity to beat them," Spurs wing Manu Ginobili said. "He came up with crazy plays."