Victor Oladipo stole the spotlight from Kyrie Irving on Saturday night with the Indiana Pacers overcoming their own mistakes in the win over the Boston Celtics.
Why was Kyrie Irving complaining about how the Indiana Pacers players and fans reacted Saturday? Victor Oladipo and the Pacers stole the spotlight away from Kyrie and the Boston Celtics with their last-second heroics. It’s as simple as that.
He was the hero for the Celtics thanks to a pair as clutch 3-pointers in the final minutes. It was vintage Kyrie. He’d broken hearts inside Bankers Life Fieldhouse before, and what looked to be another winning chapter just needed a little period to finish it off.
But then Victor Oladipo happened.
He countered Irving’s first big shot with a 2-pointer, but it was his glorious 3-pointer in Irving’s face that left him with a bitter taste in his mouth.
Mass Live’s Tom Westerholm talked with Irving after the game and the All-Star point guard seemed a little sour about having a target on their backs.
More Kyrie: “Playing teams where it doesn’t matter if they’re on a back to back, if they’ve had days of rest. They’re going to come at us, as they should. We’ll be ready. We’ll be ready to go right back at them."
— Tom Westerholm (@Tom_NBA) November 4, 2018
With quotes like that, it’s understandable why he wouldn’t want to play with LeBron James and go the NBA Finals every year.
It just sounds petty to complain that teams want to beat you. It’s also funny because, yes, they’ve had numerous injuries, but the Celtics’ haven’t won the conference title since 2010. They’re obviously the team to beat in the Eastern Conference, but on a certain level, their only a more historically prestigious version of the Philadelphia 76ers.
They’ve been anointed, but they’ve yet to do more reach the final basecamp before the summit, much less conquer the mountain.
But back to Irving.
It’s only a regular season game, of course, but it just sounds like an excuse for losing rather than taking a look introspectively. Blame the target on your back, not the missed shots, not the cold-streak to start the game. Blame the other team for getting hyped up for a potential playoff pairing.
Don’t think that excuses him from missing a layup with 11 seconds left that would have all but sealed the game. That left the door open for the Pacers.
And Victor Oladipo stole the spotlight from him. The Pacers stole the spotlight from the Celtics. He said they’ll be ready to go right back at them after the game on Friday, but he apparently wasn’t ready when Indiana, which he bothered to mention was on the tail end of a back to back, were ready to play against him and the Celtics.
Irving is one of the NBA’s best, but Victor Oladipo reminded us why he is might be better on Saturday. We’ll have to wait for any meetings in the playoffs to truly determine which team is better, but I guess Irving will be ready then.
We sure as hell know the Indiana Pacers will be.