Lowe on Kyrie's Brilliance

[Big333223]

1. The unsung brilliance of Kyrie Irving

With Irving out resting his knee, let's take a minute to appreciate his splendid first season with the Boston Celtics. We tend to focus on the brilliance of Irving's dribbling exhibitions -- the crossovers and step-backs that flow together in a liquid dance. They are magic. There is some basketball IQ in them, too -- Irving thinking two moves ahead, using the first hard dribble to set up the final blow.

But Irving's overall basketball IQ has always been a bit underrated, probably because it hasn't translated into enough playmaking for others. It showed in his screening ballet with LeBron James in Cleveland -- the way Irving disguised the direction of his picks until the very last second, and rolled downhill (semi-illegally) into the chest of LeBron's defender, dragging the defense into the very switch it feared.

Another recent example:

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Irving calls over Marcus Morris knowing the Rockets will switch. (Houston's switching has flummoxed teams all season, and they seem to be doing even more lately.) Even a clean switch leaves a split-second window between the moment one defender leaves and the next arrives. Irving is playing for that window.

He dribbles once, but he doesn't intend to go anywhere. It is a super-quick, low dribble designed to activate his shooting motion while James Harden is still several feet away -- to rise up before Harden can close out.

Let's hope Irving gets back healthy so Boston can make an honest playoff run.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22778687/zach-lowe-10-things-like-including-kyrie-irving-nba