Boston Celtics vs Philadelphia 76ers: 3 talking points, NBA 2018-19 Opening Night
The long wait is finally over as the NBA is back. The 2018-19 regular season started as the Boston Celtics faced the Philadelphia 76ers at home. Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward made their way back to the NBA after being out due to injuries.
The Philadelphia 76ers resigned Amir Johnson and JJ Redick in the off-season along with other additions and are definitely a team to watch out for this season. The two-strong Eastern Conference teams matched up and the Celtics defeated 76ers convincingly.
Through the course of this article, we take a look at three of the talking points from the 2018-19 season opener between these Eastern Conference powerhouses.
#3 Kyrie Irving has a lacklustre evening
Irving is back at it again after missing out the entire playoffs last season due to knee surgery. However, he had a game to forget as nothing went right for the 2016 NBA champ. He went 2-14 from the field and 1-8 from beyond the arc and only had 7 points on the night at the Garden.
This is not really a concern for the Celtics because we all know the kind of player that he is and since this is only his first game since the surgery, things are expected to be just fine. Although he struggled to score, he used his passing skill to hand out 7 dimes.
Kyrie was +9 on the game and that shows that he has impacted the game even when he was struggling and getting back from injury. The Celtics team will be wonderful to watch when Hayward and Kyrie start clicking together.
Hayward was not very great in his NBA return from devastating injury but definitely made an impression after scoring 10 points and collecting 5 rebounds.