If Kyrie Irving ever needs a PR agent, he might want to consider contacting Orlando coach Steve Clifford.
The Magic leader positively gushed when the subject of Irving was raised recently. Now, coaches generally will spout praise for an opponent’s players, but clearly Clifford, a Vermont native, takes it to another level with Kyrie.
“I mean, even for this league, he has a skill level that when you sit and watch, you’re like, wow,” he said. “His ball handling and his shot-making are exceptional even for the NBA.
“I don’t think you can find many guys like Kyrie in the NBA. I mean, for point guards [and] skill level, it’s him, it’s Steph (Curry), you know, Chris Paul. I think Kemba (Walker)’s getting closer and closer to those guys. But the combination of ball handling, shooting, passing, there’s not many… He’s incredible.
“Like they always say, he’s fun to sit there and watch yesterday. And then when you get up this morning and you have to figure out how to try to stop him, it’s not quite so much fun. He has incredible skill.”
Irving had 25 points against the Magic last weekend, playing 33 minutes in a game where he suffered a right quad contusion but was able to finish because, as he said, the area didn’t really become a bad problem until he cooled down later.
And it seems NBA fans basically agree with Clifford’s assessment of Irving, who led the Eastern Conference guards in the latest All-Star balloting and, in fact, had more votes than any of the West guards, as well.
Celtic timeline
Monday vs. Miami, 6 p.m. — A special Martin Luther King Day start time, so take note. And there’ll be some special incentive for the Celtics to respond after playing horribly in a 115-99 loss to the Heat in Miami 10 days ago. Among the indignities, that game included shoving and arguing between Marcus Morris and Jaylen Brown.
Wednesday vs. Cleveland, 7:30 p.m. — The Cavaliers owned the worst record in the Eastern Conference heading into the weekend, but that doesn’t scare the Celts, who managed to lose at home on Dec. 19 to Phoenix, the team with the worst record in the West. The C’s won their first meeting against the Cavs by 33 at the end of November. The last two meetings of the season series will be in Cleveland in February and March.
Saturday vs. Golden State, 8:30 p.m. — This one holds a rather large place on the national television schedule, with ABC beaming it out in a later than usual start time to attract a few more Pacific time zone viewers. Prior to the season, many — maybe even a majority of — NBA pundits were predicting a Celtics-Warriors Finals. The Celts’ ability to make that date has come into question on a number of occasions over the last few months, but, as was the case with the home win over Toronto last Wednesday, this will be their chance to make those predictions look viable. Last season, the Warriors had some serious concern about the C’s, believing they may have been the toughest opponent to match up with from the East (they traded four-point wins) — not that they didn’t think they’d still emerge victorious.
Ball movement
One of the biggest problems for the Celtics has been their propensity to go away from the crisp ball movement that yields the best results and fall into a slower isolation game.
But Brad Stevens wants it known that he’s not totally against iso ball.
“There’s a time and a place for everything I think,” the coach said. “Late clock when you get it in an isolation situation, that’s where we want people to really do what they do best. And I think the other reality is that we have one of the best guys in the world at doing that in Kyrie, and so obviously Kyrie has more leeway to do things like that, and I think that’s just generally playing to the strengths of your guys on your team.
“One of the things we want to do is we want to try to get the ball to the second side and move it as well as we can and get the best shot possible… You have a good team when you can play free together, spaced, always make the right play but then lean on that when you need to. I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m encouraged more by our offense.”
Mutual respect
There’s a reason why Dominique Wilkins will always have a special place in his heart for Danny Ainge, even though they were on opposite sides of a good rivalry in the late ’80s when the Hawks challenged the Celtics.
Ainge spoke up in 1996 when ‘Nique wasn’t named among the NBA’s 50 best players from its first 50 years.
“I have a lot of respect for Danny,” Wilkins said. “He said something years ago that still resonates with me. He said, ‘Dominique WASN’T one of the 50 greatest players. He should have been one of the top 25.’ He said, ‘There were many nights when Bird and McHale would fight about who wasn’t going to guard him.’ He said, ‘There’s a lot of things people don’t know about Dominique’s game that he brought to the table, and he did it on his own. He didn’t have another superstar.’
“Those words meant a lot to me. He was the first guy that spoke out about it.”
Star rising
Momentum may be building to get Marcus Morris a spot in the All-Star Game.
“He’s been really good,” said Stevens. “He’s been our most consistent from Day 1 with doing what he does best, and I think that’s one of the things we all appreciate about Marcus.
“I think when you talk about stability, I think that’s a great way to phrase it. He’s been a guy we all can lean on every single day. You know what you’re getting. And even when shots don’t go in at the same rate as maybe some other nights, you always know that he’s going to give every effort to do what he’s supposed to do. He’s been an excellence presence for our team and has obviously played great.”
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