Kyrie's Christmas Present

With a day filled with annual Christmas NBA games, the Sixers vs. Celtics was definitely the game of the day. Neither team could separate themselves from one another and it came down to the final quarter where Boston's star Kyrie Irving came to shine. A player who is not afraid of the big stage to take over a game, Irving lives for these moments to help his team win the game. It was on this day a few years back playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, a younger Kyrie hit a shot late in the game against the Golden State Warriors when he was under the guidance of LeBron James. Within the last minute of the game, Kyrie and the Celtics took over possession and everything was led through pretentiously the best player on the court. He dribbled his way through defenders and hit a tough lay-in off glass giving the Celtics another lead throughout the game. In their next possession down two, Irving was matched up with All-Star G/F Jimmy Butler who is known for his on-ball defense and can defend pretty much anybody in the league. He was recently acquired in a trade from Minnesota which sparked some previous controversy after Butler made some downgrading remarks about the organization overall. Either way, Butler wanted to get back on track guarding one of the hardest players in the league against historically one of the best teams of all time. With less than thirty seconds left, Kyrie attempts to shake Butler off him and once he backed him down, he turned and hit a fadeaway jumper to tie the game up at 108. After a missed three by J.J Redick to win the game, it went into overtime. Philadelphia was up by five at one point but Kyrie hit a three after a quick made basket before to take the lead in a short period of time that was left. On the next Philly possession, they could not get a clear shot to take back the league and Tatum quickly grabbed the rebound and handed the ball to Irving dribbling up the floor. And with twenty seconds still left on the shot-clock, Kyrie chucked up a three that was AT LEAST 4ft. behind the 3-point line and it went in. The crowd and the bench were shocked it went in but they praised Kyrie for the confidence he possessed giving his team a four point lead in "clutch time". Along with a team-effort on defense late in the stretch of OT, the Celtics clinched a 121-114 win over the Sixers. The man himself Kyrie Irving finished with 40 points and 10 rebounds, while Jayson Tatum and Marcus Morris also finished with 23 points a piece. Philly's Joel Embiid had a monster game with 34 points and 16 rebounds along with Jimmy Butler's 24 points. Despite the win, the Celtics continue to chase the Sixers in the East standings being only two games back of them still early in the season.