The Boston Celtics will be hosting the Brooklyn Nets on Friday in a must win game at TD Garden.
Nets guard Kyrie Irving is of course very familiar with the arena, having played there for two seasons while with the Celtics from 2017-2019. Of course, he's also had enough time to know what it's like being an adversary in Boston, and with his 2020-21 historical regular season a thing of the past, Kyrie's mindset right now is going up 3-0 against the Celtics in their first round series.
"It's not my first time being an opponent in Boston. So, I am just looking forward to competing with my teammates and hopefully, we can just keep it strictly basketball," Irving said.
Here's the thing: it's his first time playing in Boston in the postseason SINCE wearing the Celtics jersey, and he knows he didn't go out on a high note.
Irving is 0-2 in his last two playoff games in Boston, both when he was a Celtic. The last playoff game Irving played in Boston was May 6th, 2019, against the Bucks, where he shot a woeful 32 percent from the field. He managed to shoot just 34 percent from the field in his last two games combined, including a measly 14 percent from downtown in that last contest. He had more turnovers than the rest of the Celtics starting lineup combined and MISSED 15 shots – one more miss than Al Horford, who was second on the team that night in shot attempts, had ATTEMPTS.
This postseason for Irving has been a much different story, as he is shooting 50 percent over the first two games – a stark contrast to his last four in Celtic Green, where he never topped 36 percent from the field or 25 percent from three. Irving clearly fell short of postseason expectations during his time in Boston, and it left Celtics fans with a bad taste in their mouth; the season before Kyrie came ended in the Eastern Conference Finals, and they achieved the same result while he was injured in 2018 (albeit a seven-game loss to the Cavs, not in five), but they couldn't get over the hump in his lone postseason.
Everything was aligning in 2019 for the Celtics. Irving for the first time in his career made an All-NBA 2nd team – something Jayson Tatum has yet to do, by the way – and Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Al Horford and company had another year under their belt of playing together. Yet, after two straight Conference Finals appearances, Kyrie's last four games as a Celtic consisted of four straight losses with the same core…a round earlier.
It's safe to say that Kyrie Irving has unfinished playoff business in Boston, this time as an opponent, and he can get rid of those Boston postseason demons tonight. The 2021 Kyrie Irving is an even better player than the 2019 Kyrie Irving, and Celtics fans this time around can expect a much different result for Irving, even if it's at their expense. The Brooklyn Nets fans certainly won't object.
All eyes will be on Kyrie for Game 3, and Nets fans don't expect those eyes to be disappointed.
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