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The Nets’ Kyrie Irving ups the stakes in his battle with Celtics fans
By VINCENT DAVIS Special to the AmNews
Harsh taunts loudly filled TD Garden, home of the Boston Celtics, during Game 1 of the Celtics’ first round playoff series versus the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday. Most of the expletives were directed at former Celtic and current Nets guard Kyrie Irving, who has been a regular target of Celtics fans.
Their dislike for Irving goes back to the way he departed the team in the summer of 2019 after professing his love for the city and the franchise. In October of 2018 during the preseason, Irving told Celtic fans, “If you guys will have me back, I plan on re-signing here next year,” but then inked a four-year, $141 million deal with the Nets as a free-agent in June of 2019.
“I hope we could move past my Boston era and reflect on some of the highlights I left at TD Garden that they can replay. Move forward,” said Irving. But Celtics fans haven’t embraced that mindset. And they continued to let him know how they feel throughout Game 1. Irving responded by flashing his middle fingers at the crowd and rubbing his eyes to communicate he sees them as crybabies.
He did this in the process of torching arguably the NBA’s best defense led by guard Marcus Smart, who on Monday was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, for 39 points on 12-22 shooting, including going 6-10 on 3-pointers. Irving, who turned 30 in March, a seasoned ball player from the metropolitan area, expects to be heckled.
“The same energy they have for me, I’m gonna have the same energy for them,” he explained after a crushing 115114 result on a layup by Celtics All-Star guard/forward Jayson Tatum on a defensive breakdown by the Nets as time expired.
“It’s not every fan,” Irving noted. “There’s only but so much you can take as a competitor.” This has been a common point of view among NBA players for the past several seasons. Many, including the Lakers’ Russell Westbrook—while a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder—and LeBron James have had intense verbal tangles with fans crossing the line of acceptable behavior.
“We’re the ones expected to be docile and be humble, take a humble approach,” continued Irving. “F--- that! It’s the playoffs. This is what it is.” On Tuesday the league fined Irving $50,000 for his gestures as announced by Byron Spruell, the NBA’s president of league operations.
Officials and league security will be more aware of the fans’ verbal abuse of players as the series moves forward. Spectators could be subject to ejection from both TD Garden and the Barclays Center when the series moves to Brooklyn for Games 3 and 4 on Saturday and Monday. Game 3 was last night (Wednesday) in Boston.
Nets guard Kyrie Irving reacted to Boston Celtics fans’ harsh taunting of him by flashing his middle finger at them in the Nets 115-114 loss on Sunday in Game 1 of their opening round Eastern Conference playoff matchup (Bill Moore photo)
Durant and Irving need offensive support for the Nets to get past the Celtics
By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor
Game 1 of the Nets’ opening round Eastern Conference playoff series on Sunday against the Boston Celtics on the road was the Kyrie Irving show, and not because the Nets guard unabashedly peppered the foulmouthed TD Garden crowd with a double middle finger retort, garnering widespread national attention.
The former Celtics guard also shaped the series narrative by giving the NBA’s regular season league leading defense the business, torching them for 39 points in a 115-114 Game 1 Nets’ loss. Irving shot 12-22 overall and 6-10 on 3-point attempts, disregarding his former teammate Marcus Smart’s lofty status as one of the game’s best stoppers. Affirming his standing, Smart was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year on Monday.
But the previous day, he and the rest of the Celtics, who held opponents to a league low 104.5 points per game this season, had no answers for Irving. However, they did limit the damage Kevin Durant, one of the best scorers in the history of basketball, and other Nets potentially could inflict. Employing multiple defenders, the Celtics used physical and multi-level schematics to stifle the league’s fourth leading scorer during the regular season (29.9) and 21st all-time (25, 526) and rapidly climbing.
Durant had just 23 points and was an uncharacteristic 9-24 after shooting 51.8% from the field this season and 49.8 for his career. “They did a good job of forcing me away then helping in the paint. I just got to be more fundamental in my moves,” he said afterwards.
The Celtics won’t hold down Durant. They are acutely aware he will put his offensive stamp on the series and Irving will be a persistent problem. So Celtics first-year head coach Ime Udoka, who has done a masterful job leading the team to a No. 2 seed in the East, and his staff, will seek to create a design that will minimize the contributions of the so-called others, the No. 7 seed Nets’ capable secondary players.
One member of that group, guard Seth Curry, was the team’s third leading scorer during the regular season at 14.9 points per game. The younger brother of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, universally considered the greatest shooter ever, Seth is a historically efficient marksman in his own right. He is tied with injured Nets guard Joe Harris for the third highest 3-point field goal percentage in the NBA all-time at 43.9%, trailing only Warriors head coach Steve Kerr (45.4) and North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Hubert Davis (44.1).
Yet versus the Celtics in Game 1, Curry generated just nine points and was 1-4 on threes. Reserve guard Goran Dragic and second-unit center Nic Claxton were unexpectedly the Nets’ third and fourth leading point producers in Game 1 with 14 and 13 respectively. Game 2 was last night (Wednesday) in Boston. Games 3 (Saturday) and 4 (Monday) will be at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
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