Kendall Marshall challenged Kyrie Irving, which probably wasn't smart
Kyrie Irving played in his first game since suffering a fractured kneecap injury in last season's NBA Finals, and it took him a while to get back on track.
In Sunday's win over the 76ers, Irving missed his first five shots, and didn't get going until he was challenged by Kendall Marshall, who has known Irving since the two were just kids.
Marshall isn't exactly known as a scorer, so calling for the ball in an isolation matchup against anyone is a relatively rare occurrence.
But doing so against someone like Irving (who has dropped in excess of 50 points in a game more than once) seemed especially ridiculous, even when considering the long-term relationship between the two players.
Marshall missed a turnaround jumper, and Irving got the ball and raced to the other end, whipping past Marshall with a Euro-step move.
"That kind of got me going," Irving said. "He tried to iso me on the right wing. That was pretty funny. That was going back to our high school days. I've known Kendall for a while now. Him trying to go at me, it was more or less a test."
