Kyrie Irving on Celtics’ Physical Play: ‘I Ain’t No Soft Dude’

The Boston Celtics are not intimidated by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Overmatched, certainly, but they’re not backing down despite falling into a virtually insurmountable 3-0 deficit.

The C’s strategy with Cavs All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving involves plenty of rough play, but Uncle Drew says he remains unfazed.

Irving brushed off Jonas Jerebko’s hard foul in the second quarter Thursday night.

Per the NEOMG:

“My thought process and my killer mindset is that I’m just going to kill you even more now,” Irving said regarding the incident. “If I lose my composure, it’s not a good look. It’s not something that’s in my DNA. Don’t get me wrong, I ain’t no soft dude, but in the game of basketball, [expletive] happens. So you just continue to play.”

 

The Cavs’ LeBron James, Kevin Love, Timofey Mozgov and J.R. Smith rushed to his aid. Irving hopped to his feet and went on about his business. He didn’t complain, nor did he retaliate like some had hoped he would. He just proceeded to the foul line after the referees reviewed the play and determined Jerebko’s foul would remain a common foul. […] “Every team has their own tactics and what not, but we’ve come to play,” Tristan Thompson said. “This is a competition. Mano a mano. Man versus man. We’ve come to play. They can do all that macho stuff if they want, but we’re here to play, take care of business and get the W.”

 

During the mini skirmish the foul prompted, Smith was hit with a technical foul for shoving Boston’s Jae Crowder out the way. If a member of the Celtics felt the urge to roughhouse with his point guard again, Smith said he’d respond the exact same way and maybe worse. […] “That’s one of our best players,” Smith said. “We know that. Everybody knows that. So for them to try to do that and hope he loses it to get him off his game, that’s what the other guys are here for. We’re here to come to his side. He’s somebody we’re ready to go to war with regardless.”