It was only one week ago when Kyrie Irving positioned himself as a supervillain. The mercurial and über-talented All-Star was coming off a 39-point performance and spent Game 1 riling up the TD Garden faithful with middle fingers and expletives. Though the Nets narrowly lost, Irving seemed poised to take over the series with his adversarial antics and incredible play.
But he’s flopped since then. Over the last two contests, Irving has gone just 10-of-30 from the floor, and offered an array of puzzling post-game remarks that indicate he’s waved the proverbial white flag. He’s conceded this is the Celtics’ time and bemoaned the Nets’ lack of experience playing with each other.
Amazingly, Irving delivered the last line without a shred of irony. It seemingly hasn’t occurred to him that his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19 is the biggest reason why the Nets aren’t gelling like the Celtics.
“In terms of our spirit, I think, being in what we call the trenches, or being in a series like this, we’re just trying to gel, and usually you’re gelling around the right time,” Irving told reporters. “The team in the other locker room is gelling at the right time. They’ve been gelling since Christmas. So, for us, we’re just in a new experience as a group, and we just got to respect that. Bring everything we can to this next game and just do one possession at a time.
“I don’t want to be too cliche, but I don’t have a lot of answers for how you make up time from October until now when usually teams will be gelling, and things would be feeling good.”
The Nets are in a “new experience,” as an array of injuries and absences forced Steve Nash to use 43 different starting lineups this season. Irving, for example, only played in 29 games: he didn’t join the club until Jan. 5, and then couldn’t play home games due to New York City’s vaccine mandate. Irving put his personal viewpoints above the team’s wellbeing, which is his prerogative.
But his decision cost the Nets win, and in his words, time to gel. Now it’s too late. Irving has never advanced past the conference semifinals without LeBron James.
Come playoff time, Irving provides more off-court distractions than on-court results.
