Kyrie Irving dropped 40 points on 15-of-23 shooting from the field in his second game against his former team as the Brooklyn Nets went on to beat the Boston Celtics 121-109.
Irving, who heard MVP chants from the limited crowd in attendance, was in his bag all night long, as he was beating his defenders off the dribble and shifting the right gears at the right times to either drive inside for crafty layups or pull-up jumpers.
With the Nets leading by four with about 3:40 left in the game, Irving put the finishing touches on his masterpiece, as he single-handedly led his team to an 8-3 run to put the game away.
“When it gets to that quarter, when it’s winning time, I’ve always said it throughout my career I enjoy it more than anything else,” Irving said.
The Nets held an 88-86 lead heading into the fourth, and despite Irving being on the bench, Brooklyn was able to build a 10 point lead a little over three minutes into the period.
However, the Celtics quickly responded with a 7-0 spurt to put them a 3-pointer away from tying it.
Luckily for the Nets, Landry Shamet and Joe Harris both responded with a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions. From there, Brooklyn was able to answer pretty much every counterpunch from Boston the rest of the way.
Shamet was big for the Nets tonight, as he had 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting with all of his makes from behind the arc. He especially came up big in the first, drilling three 3-pointers at a time where Boston looked to be in complete control of the game.
“I’m lucky I play with guys that make the game easier,” Shamet said. “I have the easy part. I just get to shoot the ball.”
James Harden finished just shy of a triple-double – 22 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
Jayson Tatum had 31 points for the Celtics. Marcus Smart put up 19 points off the bench in his first game back since January 30th due to a calf strain.
