A story of two Kyries: the Celtics have survived and died by Irving's game against the Bucks



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Brad Stevens' reputation for being brilliant after the timeout was long before Kyrie Irving was an O on his notebook. Similarly, Irving has made himself known as a fourth-quarter player before he is in green and white. So, when Boston failed to look well at the last possession in their 98-97 loss to Milwaukee on Thursday night, in Irving's first game after a two-game absence, it was doubly confusing. There was 3.5 seconds left in the clock when Marcus Smart was lining up to tuck the ball back. Irving placed the screen on the weak side for Marcus Morris, who was heading to the basket for a lob, but Khris Middleton was not diverted and hooked with Morris. Instead, Irving rushed to receive the ball over the break, went into a clogged lane and launched an attempt that never really got a chance.

"We were looking for Morris on the lower Kyrie screen," Smart told reporters after the match. "Kyrie did a very good screen and Morris fell. […] Once this game ended, the second option was for Kyrie. "

The retransmission portrays Irving as almost heroic – freeing herself at the last moment for ultimate possession. Live, it was messy – another shot forced by a player who had forced them to play. At half-time, the worst of the season for Irving, he had 10 shots and had only two points to score. In the story of two Irving, it was the one who dominated the bullets. (He finished the half with help.)

The second half showed more of the good side of Irving, the kind of game that earned him a sixth nod of the week week. He scored 10 of his 22 points on the fourth goal to keep pace with the Bucks, with the last two on a layup to bring the Celtics back to one point before final possession. Despite Irving's late rally, he was not the player of the game in Boston. Al Horford continued his silent campaign for the most valuable Celtic, finishing with 21 points, 17 rebounds, five assists, two flights and three blocks. He was present all over the field while the other two maximum contract Stevens players were elsewhere: Irving somewhere in his own head and Gordon Hayward on the outside with a sprained ankle.

Horford stands out the least when Boston is at its best. If Irving's 3s hit, or if Jayson Tatum's one-legged fadea makes an appearance, Horford will take his stats line – let's say a very Horford of 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists – at the end of the night, and will lead the journalist rushes to the lockers of his teammates. His rebound qualities, defense and other qualities of "glue guys" are more thankless (unless he stops someone like Joel Embiid). It's cabbage in a smoothie – recognized, applauded, paid for more, but never what you want as the main flavor. Horford is not Boston's offensive; it is what helps the Boston offensive to go. This may be the well-established role in the team, while the rest of the lineup is trying to rebalance the group that led last year's Eastern Conference finals (Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier) with this year's healthy options (Irving and Hayward). .

"We have a group of young men in our locker room who feel they can do a lot more than they do," Irving told Rachel Nichols in an interview on Wednesday. All in all, the Celtics do not seem sure of what they are capable of doing. In the approach of the break from the stars, Boston lost twice in a row against the Lakers and Clippers, but lost Irving following a knee injury, then beat the Sixers and Pistons . The Celtics fall to fifth place in the East after Thursday's loss. From the point of view of the scores, they clung to the best team of the conference and limited Milwaukee (and his overall leader par excellence) to his fifth lowest point total of the Mike Budenholzer era. Nevertheless, the end seemed to be representative of how things went for Boston at this point in the season: seemingly so close to finding a real foot as to stumble and force a disputed shot when it counts.

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