Remember Kyrie Irving instigating the TD Garden crowd after the Game 3 loss by showing five fingers? That was an indication that the Mavericks would come back for Game 5 in the Finals series. Did that work out for him? Safe to say that didn’t age well for the former Celtic, but now he plans on redeeming himself after their disastrous 4-1 loss.

Going back to his former arena certainly brought traumatic memories for Kyrie, which was reflected in his performance in the series. During his recent appearance on the Locked On Mavericks podcast, Kyrie revealed how different it was playing in the Mavs’ home arena versus the Celtics. “It’s not the best reflection, of who I am, especially when going into Boston and feeling like we have a great team, but also, feeling like the best I felt in the past few years,” the 8x All-Star said.

Answering the host’s question regarding the home and away games, Kyrie said it was a big difference. “I’m here to dispel all that stuff, this year because, it is an annoying portion of the legacy building of, like, yes, competition is one thing but and then you have the extra memes and the and the extra naysayers are saying, woah, why doesn’t he play well in Boston? And it’s like, okay, I haven’t played well in Boston but there’s always a great chance to redeem yourself in competition and I’m looking forward to use utilizing that motivation energy and and also playing against the best, man,” Kyrie said.

Calling the Cs a special group and one of the best teams defense-wise, Kyrie made his intentions clear that he would go all in this upcoming season to change the notion of the NBA community who think he can’t perform against the Celtics. The former champion further added, “I give credit to the Boston Celtics while also staying motivated myself to continue to be better and demand more out of myself so I don’t perform at that level and perform at a better level than I know I’m capable of.” On one hand, Kyrie is preparing himself to face the Celtics in the next season and snatching wins against them, and on the other, his former teammate, Jaylen Brown has cracked the strategy to hold back Kyrie and his trusty partner, Luka Doncic.

Jaylen Brown shares his secret to defend Kyrie Irving and Co.

The task of guarding Kyrie and Doncic was way too hard for the rest of the NBA teams, but the Celtics made light work of them in the Finals. Thanks to Brown’s game-studying techniques. “Kyrie has a unique rhythm,” Brown shared his observation on First We Feast’s Hot Ones, “very one-of-one. So his moves and high his cadences is sometimes very, very hard to time. Like, he has a lot of countermoves.”

“He can go and pivot off both feet. He can shoot with both hands. He can drive both directions, which makes his rhythm a lot harder to track,” Brown admitted. The two have spent roughly two seasons in Boston. And considering the kind of support Brown showed for Kyrie during Nike’s alleged antisemitic claims about the latter, it appears that the duo were quite close. So, having vast knowledge came in handy while going up against him.

Whose strategies work out in the next season can be witnessed next year when the two teams come across each other in the regular season. Till then, both Kyrie and Brown can observe their plays in the other games.