Irving feels for fallen
Witnessed George break, too
CLEVELAND — Kyrie Irving had a flashback after watching Celtics teammate Gordon Hayward fracture his left ankle early on in last night’s 102-99 seasonopening loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Irving was on the floor when Paul George, in similarly gruesome fashion, broke his right leg during a USA Basketball intrasquad scrimmage in 2014. Hayward, chillingly, played in that game as well.
As well as Irving played in his return to his first NBA home last night, basketball was hard to talk about.
“I’m excited. Can you tell?” Irving said in a pained deadpan of tonight’s home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks. “I think I’ll better be suited after we get through the rest of this night. I mean, it’s tough. I’ve seen a few injuries in my career, and I’ve had a few, and I’ve seen a few. Probably two of the worst ones I’ve been in the game watching, one was at USA and this one tonight. It’s not a great sight to see, but you have to pick yourself up. Just keep on fighting, man. We understand that he, God willing, will be fine, and we’re going to continue to pray for him and be there for him as best we can.”
As for how this team moves forward, it was too soon for Irving to assess.
“Any injury is tough, especially when it’s one of your own teammates,” he said. “We understand that (we have to) just pick ourselves up and get on with continuing as best we can with the season until he’s back with us. We know G is going to be fighting to get back on the court. But first thing was first, was just putting our good spirits in him as well, showing that we got his back. At the end of the day, there’s still a game to be played. As (expletive) as that sounds, there’s still a game to be played. We understand that. We’re professionals.
“When one of our brothers goes down, we just picked the rest of our guys up and understand that we send our well wishes to him and his family, and we’ll see him on the plane. We’ll do what’s needed for him to start the process of getting back healthy.”
Tatum steps in
Rookie Jayson Tatum started in place of the injured Marcus Morris (knee) and had a far better second half (12 points, 5-for-6 shooting, five rebounds) than first (two points, 0-for5 shooting). Tatum also had the spectre of Hayward’s injury in his thoughts.
“Just seeing that happen, it was tough on all of us,” Tatum said. “You never want to see anything like that to happen to anybody, especially one of your guys. We prayed for him. We prayed for his health and told each other we have to stick together and keep pushing.”
Tatum became the first drafted C’s rookie since Paul Pierce in 1998-99 to start in an opener (Vitor Faverani, who started in the first game in 2013-14, was signed as a free agent), and the distinction is fitting.
Morris not ready
Morris is expected to miss at least the first three games with left knee soreness. An MRI was negative. He said his late start to training camp, the result of his trial and eventual acquittal on assault charges in Phoenix, is probably not the reason for the problem.
“I don’t think so, because I was working out,” Morris said. “It wasn’t like I just got off my couch or came in overweight. I’m not really sure what it is, but it’s really sore and uncomfortable. My best bet is to just let it get better and play when I’m ready.” . . .
An illness caused rookie Guerschon Yabusele to miss the opener.
Crowder acts out
The Cavaliers’ Jae Crowder had some chippy moments with his former team, first in an exchange with Aron Baynes then a prolonged war of words with Al Horford. In the third quarter, Horford picked up a technical foul when, uncharacteristically, he clapped in the vicinity of Crowder’s face.
Horford said he didn’t know what got into Crowder and added, “We play them again. That’s all I’ll say.”