Irving regains balance
C’s game rounding into form
Kyrie Irving took just five shots and scored a mere three points in Detroit last Saturday, and you know what Brad Stevens told him afterward?
“I just told him he played great,” the Celtics’ coach said late Thursday night. “I thought he did everything we needed him to do.”
Earlier on this latter evening, Irving had gone for 28 points against Milwaukee. And he had 31 on Tuesday in the completion of the homeand-home with the Pistons.
There was really no message to give the All-Star point guard, who said after last Saturday’s game that his mantra was, “Be cool.” The fact is Irving will be an impact player whether he scores three or 30, four or 40. It’s actually instructive to note he was a plus-13 in the first Detroit game and plus-1 and plus-12, respectively, in the two games since.
It’s also worthy of note that Irving has made 20-of26 shots in these latest two (10-for-19 on 3-pointers) after making 2-of-14 shots in the season-opening win over Philadelphia and 2-of-14 treys in the first three games combined.
He acknowledged Thursday there’s a difference between being unselfish and over-passing.
“Yeah, which you saw in the beginning of our season, which including me not taking as many attempts or just trying to get the ball moving, trying to make sure I know where my spots are but not necessarily being sure about it,” he said. Irving added he’s “now just kind of just playing basketball.”
Therein lies a key. Irving can do his best to make the entire operation work, to seek out the best use of his teammates’ strengths and find the right balance for the team. But he can’t lose what he can provide.
Al Horford, who walks a similar line between maximizing his own abilities and doing what’s best for the team, saw it all unfold with Irving.
“I think that there’s a lot of pressure on him, as far as running the offense, looking for his shots, defending,” Horford said. “There’s a lot of things that come to it, and we expect him to be great.
“And from the beginning of the season it was like, ‘Go.’ But it had to take a little time. I think he’s starting to figure out when to pick his times, when to run the offense. He’s doing a really good job of that. It’s not easy.
“For us, our job is to keep defending at a high level and doing things that work for him and all of us. With me, it’s getting him open in pick and rolls and then play with more pace, because that will get him more looks.”
In other words, while Kyrie Irving wants to get his teammates involved, his teammates want to make sure Kyrie Irving is involved.
“Kyrie has had a lot of success in this league,” Terry Rozier said. “He knows how to play. What’s wrong with everybody today is they’re so judgmental off a couple of games. I knew he would get back to himself eventually.”
Stevens, whose club begins a five-game trip tonight in Indiana, doesn’t necessarily think Irving ever left. The coach, as mentioned above, was quite enamored with his threepoint outlay in Detroit, perhaps because Irving essentially orchestrated the tempo in that game, leading to an easy 20-point win.
“He got the ball in the paint, and he found the right people,” Stevens said. “We showed all the clips of him doing that, and he was fantastic in that game. I think he knows there are going to be times when you get opportunities, but I haven’t seen much of a change.
“He’s pretty hard on himself, but I don’t think any of our guys should worry about getting guys involved. They should just make the right play. The right play on Saturday was to kick it out, and the right play the last two games has been to score -and he still made the kickouts.
“We just talk about making the right play. That’s it.”
Sometimes the correct play is working the ball to a teammate in search of a better shot; sometimes it’s firing away first and asking questions later. Irving is adept at both.