Kyrie Irving's basketball renaissance continues, now on the biggest stage (2024)

MINNEAPOLIS — If Anthony Edwards was going to go for Kyrie Irving’s jugular in these Western Conference finals, to take that daunting assignment head-on in this matchup between his Minnesota Timberwolves and the Dallas Mavericks, then perhaps it would have been better to keep that bold plan to himself.

Instead, the 22-year-old’s brashness got the best of him, as he announced to the world after that remarkable Game 7 victory over Denver Sunday night that he couldn’t wait to face off against the 32-year-old who is the most accomplished and experienced star player left in these playoffs.

“It’s gonna be fun, man,” Edwards, who had not been asked about Irving specifically, told the “Inside the NBA” crew on TNT. “My matchup is gonna be Kyrie. So that’s gonna be fun. We’re gonna see what I can do versus him.”

Fast-forward three nights, and Irving is on the Target Center floor in those final seconds before the series opener tips off. He has the game ball in his hands, hammering it into the hardwood as if trying to bust the floor wide open. Over and over again, as official Marc Davis waits patiently nearby hoping to regain control of the pivotal leather object, Irving is throwing 100-mph basketball heaters to himself. Pound and catch. Pound and catch. When he’s finally done, with Davis holding his arms out in anticipation, Irving flips a pass some 30 feet in the air and places it perfectly in the official’s grasp.

Only Irving knows if he was thinking about Edwards’ comment when he unleashed that fiery pregame display, but the aggressiveness and hoops artistry that followed in his magnificent first half of the Mavericks’ 108-105 win certainly seemed to suggest as much. This would eventually become a job for Luka Dončić to finish in the fourth quarter, when he came up big on both ends in ways that bode well for Dallas going forward, but it was those 24 Irving points before the break that gave the Mavs time to figure out how to finish it.

Irving hit 11 of 14 shots in all, the vast majority of them with Edwards trailing from behind while he watched the Mavs star dazzle in the paint or at the rim. No matter who the Timberwolves threw at him — Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker — Irving was determined to do his damage.

While Irving finished with 30 points (12-of-23 shooting), five rebounds, four assists, two turnovers and a plus-five mark, Edwards had 19 points (6-of-16 shooting; five 3s), 11 rebounds, eight assists, two steals, three turnovers and a minus-one mark. And as Irving admitted afterward, Edwards’ call-out after the Timberwolves’ Game 7 against Denver had certainly attracted his attention.

“As a peer, man, I love that,” Irving said. “I love it, man. It’s nothing better. When Ant was a little bit younger, I’m sure he was watching me. And when he was in high school, I was watching him. So for me, it’s more of those exciting matchups that I look forward to.

“Right after the game, it was funny, because he said it right then and there (on TNT). And I think the whole world was looking like, ‘OK. You know, you better know what you’re talking about, Ant.’ And I respect that. That no fear mentality that he has is why I love him as a competitor, and why I love him as a person. But when we’re on that court, I know he’s gonna give his all, I’m gonna give my all. At the end of the game, it’s all love. But when we’re in between those lines, he knows what it is and I know what it is.”

What it is, it seems, is the continuation of the Kyrie Irving renaissance.

It has been fewer than two years since Irving’s career was in tatters, with his suspension from the Brooklyn Nets for refusing to “unequivocally say he has no antisemitic views” leading to all sorts of skepticism within the league that he would ever be able to recover on the court. In The Athletic’s poll of NBA front office executives regarding that topic at the time, the response was overwhelmingly negative. One general manager even predicted that Irving might never play in the league again.

It’s hard to reconcile those views with what we’re seeing now, though, as Irving appears to have reached a level of basketball bliss that wasn’t even there during all those title-contending years alongside LeBron James in Cleveland. It’s not just that he’s playing elite basketball again, either. It’s that in Year No. 2 with these Mavericks, after those underwhelming first few months he had in Dallas after he was traded there from the Nets in February 2023, this is working in ways that most never could have imagined.

Irving’s leadership, in particular, is evident and profound.

“At 24, 23 years old, you feel like you’re a leader, but you don’t know what it really takes to run an organization, or to really touch guys on and off the court where you give them a lot of confidence and you exude that belief in them,” Irving said, “So I’ve just been learning, reading a lot, failing a lot, and also dealing with the heavy criticism, while also being able to be back on this stage and not take it for granted.”

There was an impossible-to-miss reminder of who Irving is and what he has gone through that came before in Game 1, as he wore his new “Anta KAI 1” shoe that is an homage to his Native American heritage. He signed on with the Chinese shoe company in December 2022, of course, after being dropped from the Nike family in the wake of his social media scandal.

Kyrie Irving is in the Anta KAI 1 “Chief Hélà” to start the Western Conference Finals pic.twitter.com/u9z7wUxLxb

— Nick DePaula (@NickDePaula) May 23, 2024

But these are better basketball times now, with Irving clearly focused on making the most of this return to the conference finals stage. He hasn’t been this far since 2017, when the Cavs fell to Golden State in the Finals and Irving’s trade request in the subsequent July led to his arrival in Boston.

He seemed to be chasing the chance to be a franchise centerpiece back then, but that ill-fated pursuit that took him to Brooklyn in 2019 is clearly behind him. This Dallas experience is about being a high-impact partner to Dončić and every other player on the roster more than anything else, and these results speak for themselves.

While Dončić may lead the Mavs in scoring (27.7 points per game), playmaking (nine assists per), rebounding (9.4 per) and steals (1.5 per) in these playoffs, it’s a reflection of Irving’s value that he trails only rookie big man Dereck Lively II in plus-minus.

Irving, who is averaging 21.8 points (42.3 percent from 3-point range), 5.3 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.3 steals, is at plus-88 mark in 13 games. Lively II is plus-106 and Dončić is third at plus-69. Yet as Irving discussed after Game 1, the high-level production is a byproduct of their flourishing partnership.

There’s a balance between their two personalities, with Irving having grown into a steadying force of sorts and Dončić still figuring out how to keep his intensity from becoming a hindrance when it matters most. The key, Irving said, is for him to change the focus of his game in accordance with what Dončić and the team need at the time. Along the way, he has developed an ability to help Dončić stay away from his danger zones too.

“At times when he reacted to turnovers (in Game 1), or passes that didn’t convert to baskets for us, I was just reminding him to keep his head up and realize where we are, the magnitude of this,” Irving said of Dončić, who had 15 points in the fourth quarter and finished with 33 points, eight assists, six rebounds, four turnovers and a minus-nine mark. “A lot of guys look to him for emotional stability, and emotional strength. We know he’s one of the best scorers of all time… and he’s going out there and not necessarily playing well offensively in the first half.”

“(But) I know in the second half, he’s gonna be aggressive. We’ve been able to figure out that one-two punch of just playing the point guard role, playing that main scorer’s role and just not lacking in other areas in the basketball game. He can do other things, and I can do other things other than scoring. So when it’s his time to score, it’s my time to play defense and get up in a guy and contest shots and continue to do the little things that get us wins.”

This was only one win, but it was a tone-setter for this team that had dropped Game 1 in both of its previous series, against the Clippers and Oklahoma City. And after Edwards was able to handle the likes of Kevin Durant and Jamal Murray in Minnesota’s first two rounds, against Phoenix and Denver, respectively, this matchup with Irving is off to a different sort of start.

(Photo of Kyrie Irving and Anthony Edwards: Jordan Johnson / NBAE via Getty Images)

Sam Amick is a senior NBA writer for The Athletic. He has covered the Association for the better part of two decades while at USA Today, Sports Illustrated, AOL FanHouse and the Sacramento Bee. Follow Sam on Twitter @sam_amick