The Celtics fell into a 3-1 hole against the Bucks in their Eastern Conference Semifinal Series, thanks in large part to another dismal Kyrie Irving performance in Game 4 (7-22, 15-44 in back-to-back losses). At this point, Colin thinks it’s abundantly clear that the Kyrie/Celtics experiment is a bust, and Boston is better without him.
Despite struggling through the regular season, Colin thought the Celtics and Irving could get their act together in the playoffs, and Irving would transform into a playoff killer, like he’s done before. He was wrong.
It’s evident that the turnaround isn’t coming, and the Celtics are a better team without him, given their 12-3 regular season record without Irving, and their Kyrie-less run to Game 7 of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals.
Additionally, the Bucks are clearly the better, deeper team in the series. From Boston’s standpoint, this playoff collapse is on Irving. There’s just no other conclusion to reach at this point.