Kyrie Irving seems to have come to terms with the way he and the Nets bowed out of the postseason last year.
Going into their first-round series against the Celtics, the Nets were not favored, but they were expected to give the Celtics a fight. Given Irving and Kevin Durant’s experience, many experts picked them to win even though the Celtics were red-hot and a lackluster regular season dropped the Nets to the No. 7 seed.
Instead, the Celtics took care of business and swept the Nets — albeit in four relatively close games.
The optics weren’t encouraging for the Nets and kickstarted a dramatic summer that included Durant’s trade request (which ultimately fizzled out).