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Kyrie Irving picked a terrible night to have an off game for the Boston Celtics, as his side suffered a season-ending Game 5 defeat at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.
Unfortunately for Irving, his lackluster performance in Game 5 was not a one-off. As pointed out by our friends at Bleacher Report, Kyrie actually had more shot attempts that points in this series, which goes to show how unimpressive he was throughout the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Kyrie in the conference semis:
102 points
104 shots(h/t @damanr) pic.twitter.com/Sp46zmyF8x
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 9, 2019
Irving started off the series on fire as he led the Celtics to a Game 1 victory against the top-seeded Bucks, logging 26 points on a highly-efficient 57.1 percent shooting. It was all downhill from there, however, as the six-time All-Star then plummeted to a 30.1 percent shooting clip in the succeeding four games of the series — all of which were defeats.
It is undeniable that Irving's poor shooting played a major role in Boston's four straight losses. Credit must be given to the Bucks defense who found a way to prevent Irving from going on his usual scoring outbursts.
Sadly, Irving has now filled the role of the team's scapegoat for this season's early exit. He appears to be taking most of the stick from the media for his inability to carry his side in what turned out to be a disappointingly lopsided series.
It's going to be a very fascinating summer for the Celtics and Irving, who will enter free agency in less than a couple of month's time. It was a terrible end to the season for both parties, so it will be interesting to see what type of impact this will have in contract talks.
