Game 1 of the Nets-Celtics first round series absolutely lived up to the billing as the marquee matchup of the opening round of the playoffs, as the two Eastern Conference titans went blow for blow in a physical game that saw things knotted up at 61-61 at the half.
Boston would make the first big run of the game, opening up a 15-point lead midway through the third quarter as Jayson Tatum ran the offense beautifully, Marcus Smart got hot from three, and the Celtics as a team executed their defensive gameplan to a tee. Boston did a terrific job of frustrating the Nets on offense, making life hard for Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but you can only keep those two scorers down for so long.
Sure enough, the Nets started to pull back into the game late in the third as Durant hit a couple contested pull-up jumpers, and Irving got loose for a jab-step long-two from the corner that prompted a timeout. After hitting the jumper, Irving — who’s relationship with Boston fans can best be described as “acrimonious” — gave some heckling fans courtside the middle finger.
Kyrie Irving gives middle finger to Celtics crowd 👀 pic.twitter.com/WxKGVwvw0r
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) April 17, 2022
The best part was the ABC broadcast embracing the back-and-forth, with Mike Breen noting Irving has heard “who knows what” from the Boston crowd, while Jeff Van Gundy called it a “salute” and Mark Jackson said it was a “little hello to everyone in the building.” Irving will surely get a fine, but he shouldn’t since it’s that tension that is helping to sell this series for the league — and if ABC is willing to show it in slow-mo multiple times in the middle of the day on Sunday it can’t be that bad.
