CLEVELAND — Kyrie Irving clapped his hands as he walked to the middle of the locker room unaware of the surprise his teammates had in store for him.

As Irving untucked his jersey, LeBron James and the rest of the Cavaliers crowded around the star point guard before dousing him with bottles of water and some ice. All of the Cavs then danced wildly in a circle.

History deserved a celebration.

Irving scored a career-high 55 points, the most in the NBA this season and a Quicken Loans Arena record, on Wednesday night as the Cavs won their eighth straight, 99-94 over the Portland Trail Blazers despite playing without an injured James.

With James sidelined with a sprained right wrist, Irving made a team record 11 3-pointers, all 10 of his free throws and dropped a go-ahead jumper with 6.4 seconds left that, to this point, is his defining moment as a pro. There are sure to be others to come.

Irving, who scored 38 on Tuesday in Detroit, was unstoppable.

“I’ve seen a lot of great performances,” Cavs coach David Blatt said. “But something quite like that? No. I have not seen that and I’ve been coaching a long time.”

Irving didn’t start too well. He missed his first seven shots before heating up and scoring 11 points in the final 1:39 of the first quarter. He had 28 points at halftime, 39 after three quarters and he scored 16 in the fourth to break the arena’s single-game record set by Allen Iverson on Jan. 6, 2001. Remarkably, Irving scored 43 more points than his next closest teammate.

And, that he did it with James reduced to little more than one of 20,000 witnesses made it that much more impressive.