Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge didn't take umbrage to Kyrie Irving's postgame comments following a loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday, when the self-appointed leader of the roster sounded nearly defeated, pointing the finger at the team's lackluster defensive strategy to contain All-Star point guard Kemba Walker:
“I did hear (Irving's comments). It's not that uncommon,” Ainge said on The Sports Hub's “Toucher & Rich,” according to Darren Hartwell of NBC Sports Boston. “Guys get frustrated, and maybe that was the first thing that came to his mind is, ‘We should have done something different with Kemba.'”
Yet Ainge didn't blame head coach Brad Stevens or his staff for letting the Hornets dynamo go off for a game-high 36 points, maintaining this was a one-game incident mired with transition mistakes:
“Kemba hit three (3-pointers) in transition. We didn't do a good job of stopping them in transition,” Ainge said. “We had defended Kemba pretty well this year after the first game of the season and up through that game, so for two and a half games, we had done a good job with the defensive plan that we had.”
The Celtics eventually lost 124-117, but Ainge pointed to Boston's poor offensive efficiency as the reason his team lost the game:
“The bottom line is, we scored five points in the final eight minutes and 20 seconds,” Ainge said. “That's not like our team at all. If we score 10 points (in that span), we win that game.”
Boston would go on to lose another game next against the San Antonio Spurs, making it four straight losses before bouncing back against the bottom-dwelling Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday.
Ainge maintained that Irving meant no harm with his postgame comments about Walker:
“I don't think (Irving's comments have) anything to do with anything other than a player's frustration,” he said.
The Celtics are 44-31 and fighting to get home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
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