DALLAS – The NBA Finals did not go to plan for Kyrie Irving, Luka Dončić’s running mate, who has yet to make his mark on this series.
He sees many bodies, and they are all equipped to defend him or at least make things difficult. So far they are winning the battle. Irving has yet to make a three-pointer despite looking good, shooting just 35.1% in the first two games.
Plus, he hasn’t gotten to the line much and defensively the Celtics are putting him in spots where Irving should be on the backline, meaning he’s more susceptible to big trouble.
Basically, if he doesn’t turn it around soon, the Dallas Mavericks will be eliminated on Friday night. Irving said he contacted Dončić to take responsibility for not playing well, saying he needed to play better.
Both Irving and Boston’s Jayson Tatum haven’t been themselves offensively, but Boston has a much more balanced, experienced roster. Tatum can afford to have poor shooting games, but he also facilitates on offense and is a point man for ball movement when the Celtics get good shots. He also defends and rebounds well.
Irving needs to score in this case and the Celtics have made it a priority to stop him.
“The first thing is I have to accept that I didn’t play well or up to my standards like I wanted to,” Irving said after the Mavericks practice on Tuesday. “Now that I’m back in Boston, I have such a desire in me to play well. I wanted to be there for my teammates. As a competitor it is frustrating.”
Perhaps he tried a little too hard to block out the chants and boos from the TD Garden crowd every time he touched the ball, plus he wanted to perform at his peak.
“I think he missed some easy shots. Obviously, I expect him to be even more aggressive and fight to get those shots,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “The most important thing is to be detailed in individual defense. It’s not about shutting him down. “It’s about just making it difficult for him because of his ability to influence plays.”
It seems unlikely that he has had three consecutive bad shooting games, or even three bad games, as he has never had consecutive games under 20 points during this regular season. He has shown a tendency to bounce back during this playoff run, becoming a distributor during the Oklahoma City series when he didn’t shoot well in Game 2 and Game 4.
Let’s not forget that he absolutely torched the Minnesota Timberwolves’ defense, with three 30-point games in that five-game romp.
And it feels like the Celtics are well aware that they have a limited hold on Irving, being careful not to step on landmines.
“I think it’s team defense. We do it as a team. It’s not just one person, it’s everyone,” said Jrue Holiday. “We just try to defend him, we try to show him bodies and multiple people and just try to make it difficult.”
Holiday is coming off a stellar run and finds himself in the early conversation for Finals MVP – a task he will have to keep up with as Kristaps Porziņģis’ health is a question mark heading into Game 3 as he was listed as questionable on Tuesday afternoon.
For Irving, one less body on the court and one set of long arms on the perimeter could make a world of difference. He says the Celtics are “directing specific strategies against me to make things difficult,” and he needs to find out.
“I’m just trying to make it hard for him,” Celtics guard Derrick White said. “He’s obviously a great player and he’s just trying to get him to make tough shots. We expect him to play better, so it will be a bigger challenge for us.”
He’s gotten off the ball, especially playing next to Dante Exum, but the shooters haven’t connected to tilt the Celtics defense. Even if that trend changes in Game 3, the most likely way to change the complexion of the series is for Irving to single-handedly breach the Celtics’ defense.
It’s tempting to look to 2016, when Irving was in Cleveland with LeBron James and that team went down 2-0 and then 3-1 before turning it around against the 73-win Golden State Warriors.
But this is an older Irving, a very good but perhaps not dynastic Celtics team on the other side, and a younger Mavericks team that will likely need more leadership from Irving than just creating shots that he was supposed to provide. years ago.
The common denominator, however, is the resilience needed to stay mentally in it and not succumb to the worst thoughts or impulses.
“We had time to fail together. We had time to face our trials together. We lost in 2015,” Irving said of the Cavaliers team. “A lot of guys came back in 2016 and we won. So there was an inner motivation. We also knew who we were playing against, how well they played.
“I think if you look at where we are now in a healthy way or with a healthy perspective, it feels like we are the team that is getting the experience, that can fail at this level. Now we have the opportunity to respond. That’s all you can ask for in a basketball season.”
Dallas could very well take its lumps, as the Celtics did in the Finals against the Warriors two years ago. However, as Irving has stated several times, there is no guarantee that we will end up in this phase again.
So you might assume that he takes the shortfall with an attitude of gratitude.
“If you were to ask me in September or October if I would like the opportunity to be down 0-2 and have the opportunity to respond in Game 3 or be out of the playoffs, I think I think I would choose the former,” Irving said. “It’s that simple when it comes to putting things into perspective. We are the only teams left. This is about chess. That’s all.”
His next move comes Wednesday.
