Kyrie Irving Called Out by NBA Fans as Luka Dončić, Mavs Lose Game 1 to Celtics

The Dallas Mavericks are down 1-0 to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals after a sluggish performance from Kyrie Irving led to a 107-89 loss.

After Irving’s outstanding performance against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals, the former champion couldn’t find his rhythm against the Celtics on Thursday.

He had just 12 points on a lackluster 6-of-19 shooting and added to the Mavericks’ defensive woes. He was little to no help to his co-star Luka Dončić, who had 30 points and 10 rebounds in his first Finals game.

It has become a common theme in this matchup:

After the loss, fans called out the veteran Irving for not carrying his weight in Game 1.

On a relatively young Dallas team, Irving is the only member of the roster with Finals experience, and the Mavericks were certainly looking to him to step up in a big way, but it never happened on Thursday.

Luckily for Dallas, it has plenty of time to avenge the Game 1 loss, but Irving will need to show up on Sunday to avoid going down 2-0 in the series.