Kyrie Irving won't be back on the court until next season but he's still "locked in" with his Boston Celtics teammates.
After the Celtics picked up a 120-106 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 2, several Celtics players spoke highly of Irving and the support he's shown even when he's not on the bench at the TD Garden.
"[Irving] sent us a message before the game today, just telling us what to expect," said Shane Larkin, according to ESPN.
"We have a lot of guys in here that have never seen a playoff game," Larkin continued. "So he really gave some words of advice today and we all read it, made some comments back, and he just had an open conversation with us and he's definitely helping off the court now that he can't be out there with us fighting.
"He's definitely still locked in with us every single game."
Celtics center Al Horford echoed Larkin's post-game comments about Irving, explaining how the 25-year old All-Star point guard let the guys know what to expect and how to play through adversity.
"Kyrie talked to us before the game, just kind of let us know what to expect, a lot of things to expect, and for us to stay locked in, and not worry about if we hit some adversity or whatever, just play through it," said Horford, via ESPN. "And I thought our guys just did that. [The Bucks] made a run and we stayed poised and moved on to the next thing."
Kyrie was in attendance for Game 1 and was on the Celtics bench for the first half but he was not in the building for Boston's Game 2 victory. In his absence, the Celtics' young stars have shined, including Jaylen Brown, who became the youngest player in franchise history to score 30+ in a playoff game in Game 2, and Terry Rozier who has been terrorizing Milwaukee's Eric Bledsoe thus far.
