Celtics’ Kyrie Irving is showing how special he was for Cavs in postseason

Fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers are well aware of the greatness of Kyrie Irving in the postseason, and now the former Cleveland star is showcasing how amazing he is for the Boston Celtics in his first postseason with them.

We’ve said many times here at KJG how amazing former Cleveland Cavaliers and current Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving is, and in the postseason, his greatness seems to be even more on display.

Thus far in the postseason, Irving’s squad is 5-0, after they swept the Indiana Pacers and just won on Sunday against the Eastern Conference’s top-seed, the Milwaukee Bucks, by 22 points on the road, 112-90 (per ESPN).

More from Opinion

• Regrading the Donovan Mitchell-Lauri Markkanen trade
• Seat Index: Rating the 9 NBA head coaches in danger of being fired
• What would a successful 2023-24 look like for Cavaliers’ Ty Jerome?
• A crucial year in The Land: 3 bold predictions for the Cavs this season
• How many teams from the Cavs’ Central Division will make the playoffs?

Yes, as we’ve noted, the Pacers were not close to themselves, as they did not have their best player in Victor Oladipo since late January, as he reportedly suffered a ruptured right quad tendon (h/t The Athletic‘s Scott Agness), which ended his season, and had he been in, the series likely would have been much different.

Regardless, Irving has been outstanding in his first playoff run with the Celtics, as last year, which was the first year Irving was on Boston (as he was reportedly traded there in August of 2017, as we’ve often discussed), the superstar point guard could not play in the postseason due to reported knee surgery (as was reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski at the time).

During these five playoff games for Boston, Irving has played just like he used to in the postseason for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

He’s displayed his dazzling ability to score the basketball in a multitude of ways, whether that be dancing his way to the basket against all kinds of defenders in isolation or pick-and-roll, from post-up fadeaways reminiscent, as many have said, of Kobe Bryant, floaters, on spot-ups, and in transition, among other scenarios.

He’s averaged 23.2 points on 55.7% effective field goal shooting, and has shot 40.1% from three-point range in the postseason, per NBA.com.

This is right up the alley for Irving’s typical postseason production, in which his career playoff averages (coming into the last game) are 23.8 points on 52.6% effective field goal shooting, including a 41.6% hit rate from three-point land (per Basketball Reference).

This Game 1 display against Milwaukee reminded me and probably other fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the good ole’ days of postseason Uncle Drew when he played for the Land, as Irving lit up the Bucks in a variety of ways with 26 points on 12-of-21 shooting (per ESPN), to go with 11 assists and seven rebounds as well.

It was an ever-impressive display, and Boston looks like the team to beat in the East right now, in my opinion, with Playoff Kyrie now entering the fold for them.

This sort of thing often helped Cleveland in their three runs to the NBA Finals (he was only healthy in two Finals unfortunately, though) with Irving on the squad alongside LeBron James, Kevin Love and others.

Obviously, we all remember the shot that Irving hit in the closing moments of the Game 7 win that clinched the Cavs their only NBA championship in 2016, but this Game 4 42-point game against the Celtics in the 2017 Eastern Conference Finals, where Cleveland was down in the first half and seemed flat, was another masterpiece in the postseason for Uncle Drew.

This was also while dealing with a nagging left ankle injury at the time, too, for the record.

Obviously, the Cleveland Cavaliers no longer have Irving, and seem to have a promising young point guard now in Collin Sexton, who had a good rookie year, all things considered, and looks to be a nice piece that was essentially involved in Cleveland-Boston Irving deal (as the Brooklyn Nets’ first-round pick in 2018), but it still reminds of the recent past watching Irving at his very best in the postseason.

Irving has been a special player for a long time, but as was the case when he was with the Cavs and is definitely the case now with the Celtics, he seems to be even better in the postseason. There are some awesome memories of him dominating in the playoffs for Cleveland, and his recent performances for Boston just made me think of that.

As far as free agency with Irving, though, I have no idea, and will he keep dazzling in the postseason for Boston in the coming years? I’m not sure.