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The C’s appeared to have things in hand when Jaylen Brown shook off an 0-for-6 start and hit a reverse layup for a nine-point lead with 4:05 left. But Brown was called for a technical, which Goran Dragic hit to start a 7-0 Miami run.
Irving stemmed the tide with a floater from the lane, and, after a Heat hoop, he drove for another score. A Brown steal then ended in an Irving trey with 57 seconds left. James Johnson scored for Miami, but when Marcus Smart tracked down the rebound of an Al Horford missed trey, the hosts were forced to foul. It was all over.
“You know, winning time,” said Irving. “It’s pretty simple. Miami does a good job of shrinking the floor, so coming off the screen and roll, I just wasn’t being as decisive as I should have been. In the second half, I was just more decisive and getting to where I needed to get and just knocking down shots, just being more aggressive and understanding where my shots were going to come from.”
That was wherever he wanted them to come from.
“That’s what he is,” said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra. “He’s a great closer in this game. His handle allows him to get wherever he needs to go, and his range makes you have to extend your defense quite a bit. So those plays at the end, the finish, how many guys can make that finish?”
Stevens is happy he has one of them.
“We need Kyrie to be aggressive shooting it, and we want Kyrie to be aggressive shooting it,” he said. “He’s a special scorer, and when that game was on the line and they cut it to two, making that floater, making the layup and then the 3, those were big-time plays.”
In six games as a Celtic, Kyrie Irving is averaging 21.3 points on 41.6 percent shooting to go with 5.7 assists, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.3 steals. He had his finest game on Saturday, displaying a dazzling array of offensive moves and helping Boston close out a 96-90 victory in Miami.
When we acquired Kyrie, fans expected a younger, bigger, more dynamic version of Isaiah Thomas. Like his predecessor, Kyrie fashions himself as a scorer more than a facilitator. Over the years — an especially during last season’s conference finals — Boston had fallen vicim to Kyrie’s scoring outbursts.
Saturday’s win was our first time watching Kyrie takeover a game offensively. He looked like the clear best player on the floor and Miami had no answers.
It seems like Kyrie’s still feeling out his role with Boston. He’s played like more of a facilitator than any other time in his career, and as a result, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have received much of the early season attention. Kyrie had an expectation of his role during training camp, but that changed immediately after Gordon Hayward’s injury.
Kyrie wanted to leave the Cavs largely because he wanted more playmaking responsibilty. He’s made strides in trying to get teammates involved, but in situations like Saturday night, when the team needs buckets at will, Kyrie will always have his “uncle drew” persona to fall back on.
Page 2: Where Baynes is Behind the Team’s Defensive Turnaround
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