BOSTON — Kyrie Irving was shook in Game 3, his first in front of Celtics fans since breaking his promise to re-sign. But, by the end of Game 4, he flipped the script on TD Garden's first capacity crowd in 15 months.
A single fan threw a water bottle in Irving's direction as he exited the floor following a brilliant 39-point performance that helped his Brooklyn Nets to a 141-126 win and a 3-1 first-round series lead. As Celtics guard Marcus Smart said afterwards, "One bad seed doesn't mean the whole fruit is poisoned," but all it takes is one to confirm Irving's fears and remind us that we as a society are not actually better than this.