Given all the history and weirdness, it seemed appropriate that Kyrie Irving made his return to the parquet floor one day after Boston’s indoor mask mandate was lifted.
Kyrie got the Rick Pitino-Manny Machado-Ulf Samuelsson reception you’d expect, but he was not the story of this day. The story of this day was Jayson Tatum (54 points) and the Celtics prevailing down the stretch of a thrilling 126-120 victory over the hot-mess Brooklyn Nets.
We saw two engaged teams go back and forth for more than 46 minutes before Tatum and the Celtics dropped the hammer. Celtic fans got their last laugh, chanting “Kyrie sucks,’’ when Jaylen Brown went to the line with 31.3 seconds left and victory secure.
“I know it’s going to be like that the rest of my career when I play here,’’ Irving said after the loss. “It’s like a scorned girlfriend, asking for an explanation why I left but still wanted a text back. . . . It was fun here while it lasted and I’m grateful for my time here in Boston . . . I tried to have some conversations with the fans that were down there calling out my name.’’
There wasn’t enough sage in New England to save Kyrie from this defeat. He scored 19 points with six assists and three turnovers.
The loudest moment of the afternoon may have come when Tatum faked Irving out of his sneakers with a nifty Shake-’n-Bake move, then drained a three over the not-so-humble head of Mr. Flat Earth.
Early in the fourth, we saw Payton Pritchard steal the ball from Irving. Watching from under one of the baskets was Glen “Big Baby” Davis, wearing a “respect the logo” T-shirt.
Sweet moments. Like a newborn’s first smile.
It was less than 10 months ago that Irving stomped on the Celtic logo at midcourt after the Nets beat the Celtics in Game 4 of a playoff series, a series the Celtics lost in five games, ending Boston’s disappointing season. It was the same night a nitwit in a Kevin Garnett jersey hurled a water bottle that grazed Irving’s head as he left the court.
It was the same night Irving and all-world teammate Kevin Durant (remember when Tom Brady went to the Hamptons to recruit Durant for the Celtics?) took Boston to task. Kyrie spoke of Boston’s “underlying racism,’’ and Durant said, “We’re not animals. We’re not in a circus.’’
Irving and Durant are two of the most talented basketball players in the world, but their “Superteam’' experiment has been a bust in Brooklyn. They were supposed to dominate last season when they had James Harden in the mix, but the trio played only 16 games together and Harden shot himself out of Brooklyn before this year’s NBA trading deadline.
The 2021-22 Nets season has been disastrous. Brooklyn started 23-9, before Durant lost six weeks with an MCL sprain. Meanwhile, Harden got his feelings hurt and was dealt for Ben Simmons, a unique talent who has missed this entire season with issues of the mind and body. While all this was going on, Brooklyn played three-quarters of its games without science-denier Irving, who put his personal freedom ahead of the team by refusing to be vaccinated.
Until New York City changes its regulations, Kyrie is strictly a road warrior. Sunday was his 16th game of the season. Irving and Durant have played only four games together.
Irving waited more than an hour before taking questions from the media Sunday. His 10-minute session was alternately engaging, playful, serious, and bizarre. The highlight might have been when he expressed warm feelings for New York’s new mayor, Eric Adams, who has held the line to keep anti-vax Irving on the sideline
“Shoutout Eric Adams, man,’’ said Irving. “It’s not an easy job to be the mayor of New York City. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes right now, trying to delegate whether or not one basketball player can come and play at home. I appreciate his comments and his stance. He knows where I stand.’
Yeesh. This guy. This team.
“We’ve all accepted that it’s been a funky year,’’ acknowledged Irving.
“They (Celtics) executed down the stretch and we looked like a brand new team that never played before,’’ said Brooklyn coach Steve Nash. "We had plenty of lineups out there that had never played a basketball game before.’’
Nash says the fragile Simmons will someday play again, but nobody knows when. No doubt they won’t try until after Brooklyn’s game at Philly Thursday.
“It’s easy to be concerned, worried, [ticked] off, mad,’’ said Durant. “Blame our season on other things. But we got 17 games left. Let’s see what happens.’’
Irving had applause and great praise for Durant, who scored 37 and passed the 25,000-point threshold. He spoke of “the level of admiration I have for my best friend right there.’’
Swell. But I would love to pump the sodium pentothal into Durant to hear what he really things of Irving’s choices. Harden, who is not exactly Mr. “Team Above Self” made his feelings known as soon as he landed in Philadelphia.
The sub-.500 (32-33) Nets appear destined for the play-in round, which they richly deserve. They could still be a world of trouble if they advance to play a top seed in the first full round, but on Sunday in Boston it looked like Tatum and the Celtics have vaulted over the team that took them out of the playoffs just ten months ago.
As for Kyrie, we’ll just keep waiting for his text. Feel like he’s been ghosting us.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @dan_shaughnessy.
March 07, 2022 at 06:09AM
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/03/06/sports/hard-he-tried-kyrie-irving-just-couldnt-steal-show-this-day/
As hard as he tried, Kyrie Irving just couldn’t steal the show on this day - The Boston Globe
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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