CLEVELAND — The Boston Celtics have announced that guard Kyrie Irving will be held out of Tuesday night's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers due to 'load management.'
The Celtics are 5th in the Eastern Conference standings with eight games left to play. They are two games in back of the Pacers for the No. 4 spot and home-court advantage in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, but have lost their last four games.
Yet, the former Cavalier will sit. "I think at the end of the day he’s (Irving) got a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. He feels that and we believe in him," said Head Coach Brad Stevens per MassLive's Tom Westerholm.
Yet, there's something else at work here.
Irving has not played a game at Quicken Loans Arena since Opening Night of 2017, when his Celtics were beaten by LeBron James and the Cavs, 102-99. That was Kyrie's first time in Cleveland since the controversial trade that sent him to Boston for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and the draft pick that ultimately became Collin Sexton.
Since then, he's missed regular season games and even an exhibition game whenever the Celtics have played at the Q. That includes being sidelined on February 5 with a sore hip.
However, Irving hasn't failed to take shots at his old city, including when asked if it means anything for him to come back to Cleveland following a Celtics loss to San Antonio on Sunday:
Prior to the start of this season, when he publicly committed to signing a long-term deal with the Celtics this summer, Kyrie thanked Boston in part for "getting me out of Cleveland."
Then there was this quote before Irving's first game back in Cleveland last year, “It’s exciting to be back on the East Coast,” said Irving, who grew up in New Jersey. “It’s fast-paced. A lot of different cultures, food and people. You get it all, especially in Boston. You would go to Cleveland, and it would be at nighttime, and things would be going on, but you just see a vast difference. Boston, I’m driving in and (thinking), ‘I’m really playing in a real, live sports city?’
