Matt Vautour: Celtics sweep permanently exorcizes Nets, Kyrie Irving demons

When Kyrie Irving comes again to TD Backyard subsequent yr, presumably with the Nets, he would possibly really get his want. Some Celtics followers will nonetheless mock and jeer him for enjoyable, however the venom received’t be the identical.

They’ll be over him as a result of after finishing a four-game first-round sweep Monday evening, they’ll be over the Nets.

When Irving and Kevin Durant signed with the Nets in 2019, there was this nagging feeling in Boston. Despite the fact that the Celtics had arrange their rebuild by fleecing the Nets within the commerce that despatched what was left of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett for the three first-round picks that restocked Boston’s core, one way or the other Brooklyn had come out forward.

Irving, then like now, was a lightning rod for controversy, however he was the Celtics’ most proficient and achieved participant. His choice to bail on Boston for the sad-sack Nets, even with Kevin Durant, was a kick within the intestine. That ache returned much more pointedly final yr when Irving and the Nets dominated the Celtics within the first spherical of the playoffs.

However when the ultimate seconds ticked off Boston’s win Monday, all of that felt like a prologue to this yr. The Celtics turned 4 video games of unselfish basketball right into a sweep of the Nets and Irving, some of the self-important gamers within the NBA. Irving is not the boogeyman. In some ways, he’s a basketball model of Alex Rodriguez, a star whose immense expertise is overshadowed by the fixed distractions of his personal making.

When the Celtics made the choice to go after the No. 2 seed on the final day of the season as an alternative of avoiding the Brooklyn Nets, it raised some eyebrows. Basketball media nationally and domestically questioned the knowledge of searching for out a showdown with a Nets group with extra expertise than their No. 7 seed and two star gamers, who’d every received championships earlier than.

Even when Boston received the collection, it was honest to query whether or not a matchup that robust would possibly take an excessive amount of out of them for later rounds.

As a substitute, the Celtics go away assured that they’ll make a giant play on the buzzer like they did in Sport 1. That they’ll erase a giant deficit like they did in Sport 2. That they’ll win on the highway like they did in Video games 3 and 4 and that they’ll shut out a collection even after Tatum fouled out like they did Monday evening. Boston acquired much more out of that than they’d have in the event that they’d crushed Chicago or Toronto.

Tatum, who seems to be evolving right into a potential championship-caliber chief, acknowledged as a lot.

“That was large. So many individuals thought we must always attempt to play any individual else within the first spherical,” Tatum mentioned. “My mindset was, to perform what we wish to accomplish, we had been most likely going to should play them finally. I’m assuming the highway to the championship is rarely simple. It’s important to play towards the perfect. We took on that problem. We knew it was going to be robust. I believe that was good for us. Simply understanding who they’ve acquired on their group and what they’re able to had us that rather more locked in from the primary recreation.”

On high of that, they get time to recuperate and further apply to get Robert Williams again as much as full pace whereas the opposite Japanese Convention contenders beat one another up.

Going ahead, the Nets are chasing the Celtics now. Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Sensible are all youthful than the growing older Nets’ core. Durant isn’t probably going to turn out to be much less injury-prone. Irving and Ben Simmons aren’t probably going to turn out to be much less prickly. Brooklyn’s wage cap points will restrict their capacity so as to add key items. Their window is closing and would possibly already be shut.

The Nets’ window of dominating the Celtics is already slammed shut. Irving as soon as in contrast himself to an previous important different that Boston followers couldn’t recover from once they booed him at TD Backyard. Now Irving, who was booed by Nets followers at Barclays Middle on Monday, has turn out to be an ex who’s making another person’s life disagreeable.

Even when the Celtics lose within the subsequent spherical, profitable this collection ceaselessly settled a rating. However even Durant thought the Boston run was simply getting began.

“They’re an unbelievable group,” Durant mentioned. “They’ve an opportunity to do large issues the remainder of the playoffs. They performed superb.”