Kyrie Irving eager to atone for Game 2 dud: 'This is what Boston traded for me for'

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Kyrie Irving eager to atone for Game 2 dud: 'This is what Boston traded for me for'




By Chris Forsberg
May 01, 2019 1:28 AM




MILWAUKEE — It seemed a bit curious that Kyrie Irving would be standing at the scorer’s table early in the fourth quarter Tuesday in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Celtics and Bucks given the lopsided nature of the tilt.

Milwaukee owned a 29-point lead as Irving went to check back in but, given his struggles over the previous 40 minutes, it felt like Irving simply desired a chance to rinse the bad taste out of his mouth.

But this just wasn’t Irving’s night. Moments after getting on the floor, he took a pass on the right wing in transition and exploded towards the basket. Despite drawing a crowd of three defenders, Irving contorted and tried to muscle home a tough finish. That’s when Eric Bledsoe, trailing the play, swooped in and blocked Irving's shot with his elbow.

Less than a minute later, Irving clocked out for the night, the worst postseason game of his NBA career now in the rear-view mirror after registering just nine points on a grizzly 4-of-18 shooting. Irving didn’t generate a single free throw and turned the ball over three times. He was a minus-19 in 31 minutes of floor time.

By the time he made his way to the postgame podium, a responsibility he didn’t shirk despite his off night, Irving was already thinking about a chance to atone in Game 3.

"There's no extra burden,” Irving said when asked about the challenge of getting the Celtics back on track as the lone superstar on the roster. "This is what I signed up for. This is what Boston traded for me for. Being able to go back, get back in the trenches, get ready for another battle on Friday, that's what you live for.

"Basketball is fun when it comes like this and you have to respond and this is the type of basketball you want to be playing this time of year.”

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Kyrie doesn't think there's an "extra burden" on him after the C's loss to the Bucks in Game 2 (Presented by http://BuyFordNow.com )

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To put Irving’s tough night in perspective, Basketball Reference tracks a metric called Game Score that attempts to distill a player’s box score data to a single easy-to-digest number. A Game Score around 10 is considered average and anything mid-teens or higher is a solid night. Forty-two of Irving’s 58 career playoff appearances had generated a Game Score of 15.5 or higher, ranging as high as 33.2 (June 13, 2016, vs. Warriors) and as low as 0.4 (May 21, 2016, vs. Toronto).

On Tuesday night, Irving posted a Game Score of 0.2. That’s the worst playoff score of his career, and the second-worst number he’s ever posted in the 133 games since he came to Boston (only a two-minute stint before getting injured in a game against Charlotte scored worse).

There have been times after tough losses that Irving has sat at his locker, earbuds inserted, and stewed. Irving seemed more tranquil after the loss Tuesday but no less anxious for another crack. He sat at his locker, his feet plunged in an ice bath, and seemed to be pondering the night's struggles. Eventually, Robin Pound, Irving’s personal trainer and frequent companion, came over clutching a box score and the two had a brief conversation before Irving dressed and headed to the podium to answer questions about his off night.

Irving was quizzed about the changes the Bucks made after Game 1 and whether the extra attention had contributed to his poor showing. Irving said he’d have to check the film but also sounded like a player eager to show Tuesday was an outlier.

"That's my job, to go out there and set that example for our team,” said Irving. "Get out in transition, make the right reads. We'll look at film, but I think I already have a clue of the way I want to play going into Game 3.”

Twelve hours earlier, Irving had sat courtside at Fiserv Forum before Boston’s morning shootaround and cautioned the Celtics about the response the Bucks were likely going to make on Tuesday night. Maybe Irving should have seen this sort of night coming but, instead, he pledged to learn from it.

The Bucks didn’t allow Irving and Boston’s guards to probe the way they did in Game 1, switching many picks and keeping bodies in front of ball-handlers. Irving settled for some tough pull-ups but the real issue came around the basket where the Bucks’ sent extra bodies at him and contributed to Irving making shooting just 2-for-8 around the rim.

But Irving didn’t help his own cause with his individual struggles. He fought his shot from all areas of the court, lacking his typical touch around the basket and being off the mark on solid 3-point looks.

“Some shots are going to go in, some shots aren’t. I tried to get to my spots but they were really sending three over every single place I went on the court,” said Irving. "That’s a sign of respect. And, for me, I’ve just gotta be more efficient in controlling the tempo of the game, pace, where I want to get to on the floor and making reads better around that midrange area.

"They did a great job of switching tonight, forcing me left. Getting to the paint wasn’t hard. It’s just getting in there and making the right decisions. And the way I started off the game as well, of just getting downhill, just set an example for my teammates the way we want to play. I just didn’t put my stamp on that.”

Not having Irving’s typical wizardry added a layer of difficulty when Boston’s offensive started settling for isolation looks as the game slipped away in the third quarter. Boston shot 2-for-13 in the final 7:45 of the third quarter with six turnovers in that span.

TNT picked the wrong night to put an isolated camera on Irving after fans voted for him before Game 2. Irving missed three shots as the game got away from Boston in the third quarter, including a questionable pull-up and a long off-the-dribble 3-pointer while Boston was still within 5.

Irving was far from the only Boston player that struggled. But, when Boston’s offense sputtered, it needed someone to give them a jump start. And Irving couldn’t even get himself going.

Even Irving’s teammates were frustrated they couldn’t do more to help him get out of his funk.

“That’s one of the things we have to go back, and see how we can be better as a group,” said Al Horford. "It’s not easy. The playoffs are just not easy, and they really did some different things there to throw us off, and we’ll have to make adjustments.”

Added Marcus Morris: "They were loading to him. They had two or three guys, and they were being very physical. I think we definitely have to fix that. Guys just staying with him the entire time, going up the court. We need to set harder screens, be a little bit more physical as they’re doing with him. For sure that’ll change on Friday.”

Now, the question is whether the Bucks can expect the sort of blood-thirsty revenge that Milwaukee was clearly seeking in Game 2. Irving is certainly eager for another chance to play.

"It's the playoffs. We're playing against a great team. They're No. 1 in the Eastern Conference for a reason,” said Irving. "They finished the regular season strong, came out and did what they were supposed to do in the playoffs, and now it's two great teams going against one another. I've been in too many battles going back and forth to get too high or too low.

"Going back home, you always feel good. This one would have been great to get but we didn’t, so now we go back home and reset our mindset going in and just have fun playing the game of basketball…So, Game 3, I'm looking forward to it.”



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