Kyrie Irving knows better than almost anyone in the NBA’s playoffs how big a clutch shot can be for a team with title aspirations. Most fans now know him as a household name for his performance in game seven of last year’s championship round.

Uncle Drew’s had the second biggest moment on that stage last June when he took Steph Curry one-on-one and pulled up for a fall-away jumper to put the Cavaliers ahead for good.

It was the biggest possible shot that could have occurred after the ragged minutes proceeding it.

Almost every person in Cleveland that follows the team will remember that shot forever and it is a huge part of what led to the city’s first championship in 52 years. Now, the true title defence begins in earnest against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday.

Ahead of the first playoff action after that dramatic deciding game, Channing Frye decided to pen a post for The Player’s Tribune to tell people just how intently his point guard studies the game and where he get his inspirations from.

Frye said: “With Kyrie, it’s rare to find a guy that young who’s an old soul and a meticulous student of the game, who runs old Jordan and Kobe replays on his iPad in order to pick up some of their little moves.

“Something I’ve come to really admire about Kyrie is that he’s always computing out there -- he’s logging everything that happens, and since nobody can guard him, that’s scary to think about.”

If you are going to model your game after someone, then Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan seem like two very safe bets. Both have won numerous championships and one is considered the de-facto greatest player of all-time by many fans.

Irving has spoken at length before about his relationship with Kobe and the two share a special bond. So much so, that after Irving helped clinch the Cavs title last summer, the first person he got on the phone and used FaceTime with was Bryant.

Also, the first time that the two really interacted outside of games was at the Team USA minicamp a couple of years ago.

A younger version of Uncle Drew challenged the Black Mamba to a series of one-on-one contests and earned some respect from the more seasoned baller.

Cleveland might have slid into the playoffs this year, but as long as LeBron James and Irving are in uniform and ready to go it will be hard to bet against them. Really, it has never been wise to bet against the Mamba Mentallity and Kyrie has that in spades.