His impressive season may have ended on a sour note but Boston Celtics star point guard Kyrie Irving is still fully supportive of his team against the young and freakish Milwaukee Bucks — and it's paying dividends. After all, he was an instrumental part of the Cleveland Cavaliers' three-straight NBA Finals appearances (led by the great LeBron James of course) and his insight and advice surely would come in handy for one of the most decorated franchises in the league.

The Celtics, according to ESPN's Chris Forsberg, credited his supportive text messages as the extra gear they needed to dispatch the feisty Bucks and carve out a 120-106 victory. Shane Larkin, the backup point to the overachieving incumbent starter Terry Rozier, described the text message below:

“[Irving] sent us a message before the game today, just telling us what to expect. We have a lot of guys in here that have never seen a playoff game. So he really gave some words of advice today and we all read it, made some comments back, and he just had an open conversation with us and he's definitely helping off the court now that he can't be out there with us fighting. He's definitely still locked in with us every single game.”

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Big man Al Horford, who's playing inspired basketball this series, also had a few positive words about the text.

“Kyrie talked to us before the game, just kind of let us know what to expect, a lot of things to expect, and for us to stay locked in, and not worry about if we hit some adversity or whatever, just play through it. And I thought our guys just did that. [The Bucks] made a run and we stayed poised and moved on to the next thing. [Kyrie's message] means a lot. Part of the reason we're in this position, and it's obviously tough for us not to have him — but he's still trying to find a way to contribute. Nice to have him there.”