2017-2018 Boston Celtics: No Irving! No Hayward! No Brooklyn Pick!

[godfather]

Lowry blew by him a few times, but overall I thought it was pretty solid. A lot of Lowry's production came against other players (mainly our shitty 2nd unit).

I didn't get to pay close attention to the game. But saw Kyrie glued to Lowry the entire time (Lowry scored) on the way to the bucket, but it wasn't Kyrie's fault, the help defense wasn't there. I thought shit, if Kyrie is going to lock in like that on that end, then this might be a short series.

 

[Ohio]

Kyrie took over in the 3rd quarter, and he did it by passing. Was a beautiful thing to see.

 

[LeShaq]

Cavs are unbeatable when he's slicing up defenses like tonight.

Yep. The stats don't lie. We're like 20-4 or something, this year, when Kyrie has 6+ assists in a game.

We win when he passes.

 

[wuck]

How was his defense?

Some of it was helped by scheme (a lot of doubling), but he was also good man-to-man and Toronto did not find actions that took advantage of him. He also played DeRozan in very smart ways when he had him one-on-one. He was not slowly trailing guys making layups all night, that is for sure.

 

[godfather]

One of Kyrie's best defensive performances ever. +53 ON-OFF. There was a blow by here and there but every PG has those. No defensive breakdowns again and again this time around.

The highest Cavs NET rating over a 20 game span in this second LeBron era was that stretch in the first year year with Blatt and it was the ONLY 20+ game stretch that Kyrie has ever been a plus defender in his career. When he was this team had a higher net rating than the Warriors. Kyrie defending sends this team into a completely different stratosphere.

I remember that stretch too. And Kyrie was still pretty bad defending the pick-and-roll primarily, at least in staying in front of his man, but he was making a great effort of at least recovering and coming from behind to still alter/challenge shots.

If Kyrie is going to always struggle at defending the pick-and-roll initially, I wouldn't mind him getting back to that at least. Kyrie actually has pretty long arms, he's capable of alternating shots.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

Kyrie took over in the 3rd quarter, and he did it by passing. Was a beautiful thing to see.

Lots of credit to LBJ too, who recognized the groove Kyrie was in, and made sure he was initiating the offense the entire time, and helped him out big time by cutting to the basket hard and screening hard.

 

[Akhan7860]

The entire bar gasped when Kyrie did this

 

[Sebastian]

The entire bar gasped when Kyrie did this

RJs incredulousness is the best.

 

[shoes22]

The entire bar gasped when Kyrie did this

That makes me dizzy even just watching it, let alone trying to defend it...I’m surprised Kyrie didn’t lose his orientation himself when he drove to the basket.

 

[Tlyons]

It looked our bench was trying to replay that move Kyrie did before the feed ended...great stuff

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Powell Lowry is not going to like seeing that replayed. It looked like that move stole his soul.

Something about the way Irving moves makes him appear slow to me sometimes. It's deceiving as hell because he's obviously not, and I think it sometimes throws off the people guarding him.

 

[Jscc]

Lowry is not going to like seeing that replayed. It looked like that move stole his soul.

Something about the way Irving moves makes him appear slow to me sometimes. It's deceiving as hell because he's obviously not, and I think it sometimes throws off the people guarding him.

That was Powell being baptized. Lowry was cross-court guarding Deron.

 

[TyGuy]

Kyrie Irving:

35 minutes
24 points on 44% shooting
10 assists
2 rebounds
2 steals
+32
All while guarding Toronto's two best players.

Yeah, he sucks, trade him.

I take it people aren't worried about him being injured now? Physically I thought he looked fine last series. I chalked it up to just a bad series. Let's hope last nights game is the guy we get for the remainder of the playoffs.

 

[Jordan]

I take it people aren't worried about him being injured now? Physically I thought he looked fine last series. I chalked it up to just a bad series. Let's hope last nights game is the guy we get for the remainder of the playoffs.

He deserved criticism last round, and if he was really hurt, he shouldn't have been playing. I have no clue if he is injured or not, and frankly, neither does anyone on this board. He definitely looked beat up and low on stamina last round, not sure that means injured, but again, it doesn't matter.

 

[Ohio]

I take it people aren't worried about him being injured now? Physically I thought he looked fine last series. I chalked it up to just a bad series. Let's hope last nights game is the guy we get for the remainder of the playoffs.

You should have seen the game thread...

People couldn't make up their minds on whether he was hurt, whether he was good, whether he was shitty, anything. It was actually pretty funny.