Your Morning Dump... Where it's Kyrie Irving in a Phantom of the Opera mask because, why not?

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

Kyrie Irving over his last seven games since deciding to wear a mask again following Warriors game: 29.9 ppg, 5.0 apg, 58.6% FG, 50% 3pt, 85% FT (6.7 FTA per game).

— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) December 1, 2017

Since going back to the mask on Nov. 18 vs. Atlanta, Kyrie Irving (58% FG) has been the best high volume shooter in the NBA: https://t.co/Np646t3Bjd

— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) December 1, 2017

“[The mask] felt good,” Irving told reporters in Atlanta after going back to it for the first time.” You didn’t see me take it off as much, so that’s a positive. I could see just a little bit more of the crowd tonight, the eye holes were a little bit bigger. The basket looked a little bit better.”

Irving torched the Hawks for 30 points that night on 10-of-12 shooting and the basket has continued to look pretty big for him throughout Boston’s recent schedule. Over the past seven games, Irving is averaging 29.9 points per game on 58 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent shooting from 3-point range. That points per game average is the third highest mark in the NBA over the last two weeks”

Boston Sports Journal (subscription required)

In his 19 games wearing the mask that season (2012/13, ed.), Irving shot 47.5 percent from the floor, 39.8 percent from three-point range, and averaged 24.5 points per game. Those figures were all significantly higher than his full-season averages: 45.2 percent, 39.1 percent, and 22.5 point per game, respectively. The stretch led to Irving being selected to his first NBA All-Star Game.

Boston.com

So I think we need to make this official. Kyrie keeps wearing his mask forever, like Rip Hamilton. Or Erik.

Although, in fairness, the old Boston Garden was much more suited as a haunt for an elusive man of mystery.

Page 2: “The stupidest thing I’ve heard in 2017.”

So yesterday, John posted a link and a rather odd clip in which Wyc Grousbeck playfully threatened to pull the C’s broadcast rights from 98.5, before, with increasing annoyance, telling Felger that he had no idea what he was talking about (NBC Sports vid here)

Although John posted some nice pull quotes from that vid, I think the one above really is the best. And I think it needs to be immediately picked up by the Sports Hub and used in all of their cross-platform advertising.

So, please, feel free to help them get the message out–share this graphic!

Boston.com also dropped a podcast with Wyc and Chris Gaspar, as may be expected, the conversation was less likely to make you want to bang your head into a wall to make it stop; highlights here and below:

Did you think the Celtics would be as successful as they have been after Gordon Hayward went down with injury?

Grousbeck: No way. I hoped with our team that we thought we had together [with Hayward], we thought we could be a team that surprised everybody like the ‘07-08 team — in terms of going on streaks and being super good. I thought we had the makings of a really good team. But then seeing Gordon go down so horrifically, I’ve got to say I was just thinking we’d be scrapping and trying to build and seeing if we could survive the year. We’re off to a much better start than I thought.

…

Gasper: Obviously, you’re a business guy and you know a lot of times there can be undervalued assets. The things that Marcus does don’t necessarily show up on a stat sheet. Does that make him an undervalued asset?

Grousbeck: Well, his agent sees them all and lets us know about them. And we didn’t come to a deal with his agent. So, I don’t know if he’s undervalued or overvalued, or what. But, anyway, that’s a discussion that we’ll have at the end of the year.