LOS ANGELES -- If you simply looked at the numbers, there wasn’t much that was overly alarming about Kyrie Irving’s performance in the month of February. He led the team in scoring (22.3 ppg) and assists (6.8) and shot incredibly efficiently from the field (41 percent from 3). Yet as the losses piled up amid an ugly 6-7 month for the team, it was hard to ignore the dropoff on the defensive end when it came to the All-Star.
Irving arrived in Boston with an earned label of dogging it on defense at times in Cleveland. He managed to shed that label at various points to a degree in his first season in Boston (albeit inconsistently) and he was flat out terrific at points during that front in the first half of 2018-19 as his teammates struggled on the offensive end. Irving embraced the defensive challenge more after teaming up with Marcus Smart in the starting backcourt, leading the team in charges taken through the first half of the season with the kind of effort that turned a lot of heads.
“Kyrie is in the right spot a lot,” Brad Stevens said earlier this year of Irving's defense. “He’s got unbelievable instincts and he also has an unbelievable ability to recognize the biggest threat in the room.”
For much of February, though, Irving’s discipline and commitment to the defensive end waned as the rumors heated up about his future and the free agency drama looming this season. As his defense went south, Boston’s defensive performance followed suit, leading to 109.6 points allowed per 100 possessions from February 1st (aka Ask me July 1st day) until the loss against the Rockets last week. That’s six points worse than the C’s season average on the year and it was highlighted by plenty of embarrassing efforts like this by Irving on a nightly basis.
What is this closeout by Kyrie? pic.twitter.com/ZxDeIYUO3B
— Dan Greenberg (@StoolGreenie) March 3, 2019
