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Duke Basketball One-And-Done Torches Former Team in First Time Back
On Tuesday night, in former Duke basketball guard Kyrie Irving's first return to the Barclays Center since requesting a trade last February, the Dallas Mavericks sensation unsurprisingly drew a chorus of boos from the Brooklyn Nets crowd during his introduction as a starter.
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Those boos grew louder as the 31-year-old New Jersey native missed his first couple of attempts from the field.
Irving heated up, though, to the tune of a game-high 36 points, shooting 15-for-24 overall and 6-for-10 beyond the arc in the Mavericks' 119-107 win. The one-time NBA champion, who went No. 1 overall at the 2011 NBA Draft following his one-and-campaign with the Blue Devils, added two rebounds, five assists, and two steals.
Kyrie Irving, now averaging 25.5 points, 5.0 boards, 5.4 dimes, and 1.4 steals while shooting a career-high 42.4 percent from downtown, is one of three Duke basketball talents on the Dallas roster.
But veteran guard Seth Curry didn't receive any minutes on Tuesday night for the Mavericks (28-23), sitting at No. 8 in the Western Conference standings. Meanwhile, their rookie center from Duke, Dereck Lively II, has been sidelined the past week with a nasal fracture.
And neither of Brooklyn's NBA Blue Devils played in the game. Harry Giles, a seldom-used reserve big man in his first year with the Nets (20-30, No. 11 in the East), remained on the bench. As for rookie forward Dariq Whitehead, he's out for the season after recently undergoing surgery to address the stress reaction in his left shin.
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