The Boston Celtics are on the verge of winning their 18th NBA Championship after winning the first three games of their NBA Finals Series with the Dallas Mavericks. The Celtics registered a blowout victory in Game 1 of the series and two much closer wins since, and former Boston great Bob Cousy has had a chance to watch both teams closely. He is not a big fan of Mavericks star guard Kyrie Irving.
Cousy was one of the great guards in the NBA and he teamed with the legendary Bill Russell for many of the early championships during the era of Boston dominance. He was considered a brilliant ball handler throughout his 13-year run with the Celtics.
The Hall of Famer was a 6-time NBA champion, 13-time All-Star, the MVP in the 1956-57 season and a member of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.
Irving is considered one of the greatest ballhandlers of the current era, but Cousy does not believe he is still a superstar.
“The Celtics have exposed Kyrie Irving as not quite a superstar,” Cousy said. “Kyrie's working his a** off and they are still stopping most of his stuff. He's no longer in the superstar category. You've got to function in the playoffs to determine where your are in the hierarchy.”
Cousy knows that Irving is still an effective player, but he made the point of saying that he is no longer a superstar.
Pressure is on Irving and the Mavericks to extend the series
The numbers tell the story and no NBA team has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit in any playoff series. The Mavericks are not hoping to do that in Game 4. They are just hoping to extend the series to 5 games and force both teams to return to Boston for Game 5 of the series Monday.
The Celtics have ridden the strength of superstars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the team's overall depth, defensive excellence and three-point shooting to gain the advantage to this point in the series.
The Celtics are on something of a historic run in the postseason. They have a 15-2 record in playoff game and have won all 7 of the road games they have played. If they can complete the seep of the Mavericks, it will mark the second time in team history that they earned a 4-0 victory in the championship round. The only other time that occurred was in the 1959 championship round when they blanked the Minneapolis Lakers.
Irving is averaging 41.1 minutes per game along with 21.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game against the Celtics. That last number is perhaps what Cousy is basing his criticism of Irving on because he has been known as a brilliant passer throughout his career.
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