Kyrie Irving would like to remind you he is very good. And Cavaliers win.

You know why the Cleveland and Washington were on the NBA opening night schedule along with marquee teams like the Lakers, Heat and Celtics? Because the NBA likes to showcase its future, and here were John Wall and Kyrie Irving to entertain you… except John Wall is out for a while with a cracked patella.

That’s okay, Kyrie Irving can put on enough of a show for both of them.

Irving dropped 29 points and keyed a 14-4 run late and the Cavaliers fought to hold on and win a game they should have run away with against a depleted Wizards team, final score 94-84.

Watch that game and you came away reminded that Irving is on his way to joining the stratosphere of NBA point guards — he’s not Chris Paul or Deron Williams yet, but he will get there. He has the shot (he was knocking down threes) and the court generalship to get there and he displayed them all. Most importantly, he picked the right times to shoot and the right times to dish.

There were other bright spots if you’re a Cavs fan — Anderson Varejao owned the glass and had 23 rebounds, 12 of them offensive; Tristan Thompson had a dozen points, 7 in the fourth quarter during the Cavs run to seal the game; and rookie Dion Waiters completely outplayed his counterpart Bradley Beal.

Still this game was a lot tougher than it should have been. The game was tied 24-24 late in first quarter as Washington puts up points by pushing ball in transition and kicking out for three –Beal has figured out to run to the arc in transition and the Cavs had not figured out how to cover that.

But then late in the first the Wizards went cold shooting — 28 percent in the second quarter — and by the half the Cavaliers had pulled away. They led by 11 at the half and by 16 at points in the second and third quarters.

Varejao was a big part of that as he was hustling on the glass and really wanted the rebounds, which set him apart from seemingly everyone in a Wizards uniform. Remember that Varejao was tearing up the boards last season until his broken wrist.

Then the Cavs looked like a young team that couldn’t close out games. Washington made a 14-0 run start the fourth quarter behind the offensive powerhouses that are Jannero Pargo and Jordan Crawford (who led all Wizards with 11 points). A lot of that has to do with some terrible defense by the Cavaliers bench.

One thing you can take away from this game — Washington is going to struggle to put up points until John Wall and Nene return. The shot 35.6 percent for the game and 25 percent from three, and let’s just say this is not the best defense they are going to see in the next week (two games against Boston, plus the Pacers).

Once Irving and the starters for the Cavaliers got back in the game, order was restored. It wasn’t an impressive win, not when guys like Donald Sloan are getting a lot of run, not the way the Cavs bench played. But it’s a win to start the season, the Cavs will take it.

Oh, and Kyrie Irving is really, really good.