Kyrie Irving's Injury Eliminates Boston Celtics As 2018 NBA Finals Contender, Threat To Cavaliers

Kyrie Irving will miss the remainder of the regular season and the entirety of the 2018 NBA playoffs because of knee surgery that he’ll undergo Saturday. The news all but eliminates the Boston Celtics as a legitimate candidate to reach the NBA Finals.

Irving was expected to only miss a few weeks with surgery, but a second procedure is required after the team discovered a bacterial infection in the guard’s knee. Once considered to be the biggest threat to dethrone LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers as the Eastern Conference champions, the Celtics are nothing more than a long-shot to win three consecutive postseason series.

A year after losing to the Cavs in the conference finals in five games, Boston’s addition of Irving appeared to at least give them a shot at upsetting Cleveland. The league’s best defensive team also had one of basketball’s premier scorers, one who had a proven playoff track record with multiple historic performances in the postseason. With Irving playing the majority of the regular season, Boston is guaranteed to finish ahead of the Cavs in the standings, giving them home-court advantage in a seven-game series.

Without Irving, Boston has little chance to defeat Cleveland, no matter where the games are played. James is arguably playing the best basketball of his career, and he’s not going to lose in the playoffs to a team that has Jaylen Brown as their No.1 scorer.

Irving averaged 25.9 points per game on 46.8 percent shooting in last year’s playoffs. The point guard scored at least 38 points in three of Cleveland’s final seven 2017 postseason games, and he hit the go-ahead three-pointer that helped the Cavaliers win Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals.

The Celtics rank 18th in offensive efficiency. Irving’s 24.4 points per game are more than 10 points higher than the average of the team’s second-highest scorer. Boston’s offensive rating drops seven points with Irving on the bench compared to when he’s in the game.

Boston will finish second in the East to the Toronto Raptors. The Celtics had a chance to close the gap in the standings between themselves and the Raptors to just one game, but they were blown out by Toronto 96-78 Wednesday night. Without Irving, Boston was held to 33.3 percent shooting from the floor.

That doesn’t mean Boston can’t win a playoff series or two. Brad Stevens might be the NBA’s best coach, and he’s helped the Celtics go 12-6 without Irving. Depending on how the final standings shake out, Boston might be able to avoid Cleveland until the Eastern Conference Finals.

Irving started in this year’s All-Star Game and was having the best year of his career. Backup guard Marcus Smart is also out with an injury and hopes to return at some point in the postseason.