The Celtics had their worst offensive scoring night of the season three weeks ago against the Chicago Bulls, scoring a season-low 85 points while Kyrie Irving watched from the sidelines with a bruised quad.
The All-Star point guard was back in action for the rematch on Saturday night and fittingly the Celtics were a different team with him on the floor. He was a plus-33 in his 27 minutes of action, accurately reflecting his impact on the team’s offense as Celtics increased their scoring output by 32 points from that initial meeting.
The 25-year-old scored a ho-hum game-high 25 points in the 117-92 blowout win, but as has been the case for the month of December, his efficiency was just as impressive as his overall production. The 6-foot-3 scorer was 9-of-15 from the field and 5-of-7 from 3-point range against a promising young defender in Kris Dunn. He got whatever he wanted, seemingly whenever he wanted, creating for himself and teammates at will.
Those kinds of nights have quickly become the norm for Irving since his arrival in Boston. In fact, through the busiest stretch of the Celtics schedule this year, Irving is on pace to have the best shooting month of his NBA career.Take a look at Irving’s incredible splits through 12 games in the month of December.
- 27.7 points per game despite averaging 33.1 minutes per game (career-best for a month)
- 51 percent from the field on 19.9 attempts per game (career-best for a month)
- 46 percent from 3-point range on 7.7 attempts per game
- 93.8 percent from the free throw line on four attempts per game.