Danny Ainge has had no problem defending Kyrie Irving this season, and Thursday was no different.
The Boston Celtics president of basketball operations joined 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher & Rich” for his weekly interview and was asked about his star point guard seemingly calling out head coach Brad Stevens after Boston’s loss to the Charlotte Hornets on March 23.
Ainge admitted what Irving said wasn’t “uncommon”, and chalked what he said up to the 26-year-old simply being frustrated.
“I did hear (Irving’s comments). It’s not that uncommon,” he said. “Guys get frustrated, and maybe that was the first thing that came to his mind is, ‘We should have done something different with Kemba (Walker).'”
Irving said postgame the C’s defense should have “trapped” Walker “like every other team does in the league.” And while many saw it as a dig at Stevens, Ainge had the bench boss’s back, as well, praising his game plan against Charlotte.
“Kemba hit three (3-pointers) in transition. We didn’t do a good job of stopping them in transition,” Ainge said. “We had defended Kemba pretty well this year after the first game of the season and up through that game, so for two and a half games, we had done a good job with the defensive plan that we had.
“The bottom line is, we scored five points in the final eight minutes and 20 seconds,” he added. “That’s not like our team at all. If we score 10 points (in that span), we win that game.”
Ainge concluded by saying he believes Irving’s comments were nothing but a player being frustrated.
But the Celtics will need to put any frustration behind them as they gear up for the end of the regular season and prep for what they hope is a lengthy postseason run.
