In the East, who misses Irving more?

And in the Eastern Conference finals:

⏩ Maybe it’s not a first, but it’s as strange as it is unusual: As Kyrie Irving roams the sidelines of the conference finals in street clothes, he is dearly missed by both teams.

LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers realize it was a terrible mistake to trade Irving, regardless of the point guard’s demands. They got nothing from Isaiah Thomas or Jae Crowder, and although it seemed a blessing to acquire Brooklyn’s first-round draft pick from the Celtics, it wound up a very uninspiring No. 8 after the lottery was established.

James is essentially taking on the Celtics alone, not certain what he can get from any of his teammates. He can only grow nostalgic over Irving’s thirst for taking over big games, most notably Game 7 of the 2016 Finals against the Warriors.

The Celtics have played remarkably well since Irving was lost to knee surgery, head coach Brad Stevens building a cohesive, share-the-ball offense that has turned rookie Jayson Tatum into a playoff star at 20. But they still don’t have that closer’s look — not even during Wednesday night’s Game 5 victory at home.

⏩ James appreared to be exhausted through long stretches of Game 5, and head coach Tyronn Lue candidly stated that “he looked a little tired to me.” No doubt. James led the league in regular-season minutes, he played all 82 games for the first time in seven years, and he’s leading all playoff competitors in minutes. He’s still Lebron, though. It says here he’ll get Cleveland through Game 6 on the strength of his will.

⏩ In the wake of so many onesided games, it has been suggested that the Finals be staged at a neutral site. On the positive side, there would be no travel concerns, and it would appeal to any fans interested in attending a two-week festival. But once you allow for corporate concerns and voracious greed, you’d have the thing staged in an enormous football stadium (much like the tarnished Final Four) with zero atmosphere, thousands of terrible seats and wide-open spaces that leave shooters distracted and annoyed. Not to mention dismissing home-court rewards for fans of the competing teams.

What a dreadful bit of kneejerk nonsense.