Kyrie Irving: Sometimes it’s a problem because I can’t play
Kyrie Irving (30, USA) delivered a word of reflection on the season.
The Brooklyn Nets (hereinafter referred to as Brooklyn) lost 116-112, four points to Boston in Game 4 of the first round of the 21-22 NBA Playoff at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on the 26th (Korea Standard Time), and will experience their only playoff sweep loss this season. In Boston, Tatum and other key players stood out, and in Brooklyn, Kevin Durant (33, USA) and bench members fought hard, but eventually lost.
“I felt like I was letting the team down when I couldn’t play,” Irving said in a post-match interview. It’s sometimes a problem.”
Irving scored 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists on the day. However, considering his share of the team, it is a very disappointing record.
Irving has been dogged by constant noise this season. At the beginning of the season, he was recorded as the first NBA player to play only in away games due to non-vaccination. This led to a feud with James Harden (32, USA) and had a lot of influence on ruining the team atmosphere. Since then, restrictions on vaccinations have been lifted in accordance with the changed New York City policy, and Irving, who can play in all games, has given the team another concern with another action.
Irving, a third-year Muslim, performed Ramadan fasting (which means eating nothing while the sun is up) ahead of the playoffs, exposing his uneven performance.
This was immediately revealed in the playoffs. If you look at Irving’s record this season, all records are lower than the regular season’s playoff record. In particular, the number of attempts by fielders in the regular season was noticeable, with 21.2 attempts in the regular season and then reduced to 15.8 in the playoffs. Durant rose 20.3 to 26.3. Due to the nature of the Brooklyn lineup, it is normal for the two to increase their fieldwork attempts, but Irving’s passive fieldwork attempts have consistently continued the series. In the end, it resulted in Durant being exhausted.
Brooklyn’s season, which was called a favorite at the start of the season, had to accept a poor report card of a 4-0 sweep defeat in the “21-22 NBA Playoff Round 1” after Irving’s slump