Kyrie Irving's return to Boston was highly publicized this past week especially thanks to his comments about Celtics fans and whether or not they would engage in racist smears throughout the game. Celtics fans have a negative reputation and with the playoffs in full swing, Irving wanted everything to be respectful and about basketball.
In the end, Celtics fans were on their best behavior although they did shower Kyrie with boos throughout the match. Kyrie seemed to be a bit shaken up by the reception and as a result, he had a bad game, only scoring 16 points. With Jayson Tatum scoring 50 for the Celtics, the Nets lost the game and now, Brooklyn only has a 2-1 series lead. The crowd is set to be bigger on Sunday, and as Kyrie noted, he's ready for the challenge that awaits him.
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“I mean, it’s basketball,” he said. “I’ve been in a few environments in my life so like I said, as long as it’s strictly the nature of basketball out there and there’s nothing extra, I’m cool with it. Just get some preparation with the team tomorrow and get prepared for Sunday. Going to keep it straight basketball. [...] “We’re expecting a bigger crowd on Sunday. Happy it was a great start to seeing what this environment is going to be like. Just looking forward to the challenge.”
Needless to say, it was just one bad game for Kyrie who probably had a lot of emotions prior to the match. Now, he will get a chance to redeem himself and we're sure he'll put on quite the show in Game 4.
[Via]