Kyrie Irving plans to play vs. Nets with a mask

NEW YORK -- A facial fracture will only sideline Kyrie Irving for one game, as the All-Star point guard went through Tuesday's shootaround with the Celtics and intends to return to action for Tuesday's game against the Nets.

"It's alright," Irving said of his injury. "Just trying to get your peripheral version just to stay the same, understanding you’ve got a piece of plastic on your face. That’s about it."

The 25-year-old took a elbow from Aron Baynes in the first quarter of Friday's win over the Hornets but does not feel any ill will towards his teammate for the collision. In fact, Irving put some of the blame on himself for getting in the line of fire.

"He was trying to go for the shot, the block on Kemba Walker," Irving said. "And I should have just sent him to the big and gotten out of the play. It’s more or less onus on my end. Just getting out of the way. I shouldn’t be down there anyway.”

Irving has actually thrived in his stints as a masked man throughout his NBA career. The 25-year-old wore one for a month back in 2012 after breaking his jaw. He shot 48 percent from the floor and 40 percent from three-point range in that span over 19 games, averaging 24.5 points and 5.7 assists per contest. Irving also had a four-game stint with a mask at the start of the 2013-14 season (broken nose) and had similar success (23.5 points and 8.3 assists per game) there.

For now, the biggest issue for the guard won't be wearing the hardware but dealing with the blocked sinuses the injury has created.

"It’s just my sinuses, man," Irving said of the lingering effects. "Probably not being able to yell as much as I would like to. It’s just shattered in my face, right down here. It’s an uncomfortable feeling but it’s not anything I haven’t felt before. I fell on my face one time, I got elbowed, I broke my nose, suffered a deviated septum. You just want to keep this thing as pretty as possible but, hey, it’s getting tougher and tougher the more aggressive I play. Hopefully I won’t get elbowed by one of my teammates today. But I’m excited to go back out there and play with these guys tonight. The last two games have showed a lot of character for our team and just been nothing short of proud of these guys. I’m just ready to go back out there and go to war with these guys and have some fun."

Irving was also relieved he did not suffer a concussion from the impact.

“At first I was in a daze a little bit," Irving said. "It was such a surprising hit. It happened so unexpectedly. I haven’t been hit like that in a while to where my nose starts bleeding and I kind of – getting hit by Aron Baynes, it’s nothing pretty. But it’s part of the game. When stuff happens like that, that’s the last hope (I think he said hope – not entirely sure) – just you don’t want to get a concussion and be down a little longer than expected. But obviously we took the precautions. I did all my tests to make sure I wasn’t having headaches or anything like that, or any linger effects. Good thing it was isolated right here on my face."