Boston Celtics: 3 takeaways from thrilling Game One win over Brooklyn

Boston Celtics takeaway No. 3) The C’s have a Kyrie Irving problem

Kyrie Irving has been a thorn in Boston’s side ever since he left in free agency to join the Brooklyn Nets back in 2019.

Since his departure, he lost his status as an exalted figure in eastern Massachusetts and became public enemy number one in the process. To make matters even worse, he stomped on the Celtics’ mid-court logo of “Lucky” following last year’s Game Three loss to Brooklyn.

The Nets went on to win that series in five games.

That brings us all the way to present day.

Kyrie stated before this series that he hoped to bury the hatchet with Boston and start to celebrate the good times, but it was clear that the fans had no intention of doing so.

He was met with heavy boos and was berated by the crowd all game long.

Unfortunately, this seemed to only fuel him further as he started going ballistic in the fourth quarter and was knocking down every big shot.

He finished with 39 points on a ridiculous 12-for-20 shooting from the field and 6-for-9 shooting from beyond the arc.

Irving is one of the most gifted offensive players to ever play basketball and he is going to hunt his shot all series long in order to shut the Celtics fans up.

It is clear that he is hearing all the noise and he will be extra motivated to take down the Boston Celtics. It is important that Ime Udoka prepares his team for this so they can keep him contained going forward.

Kevin Durant won’t have many off days like Sunday, and they surely can’t survive big performances from both him and Kyrie if they are going to win this series.