'23-24 Celtics ‘one of the best defensive teams of all time’

“That was a special group we [went] against. So I give credit to the Boston Celtics.”

Kyrie Irving had a rough go of it in the 2024 NBA Finals against Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks know full well just how dominant the 2023-24 Boston Celtics were.

After orchestrating a run to the NBA Finals behind a high-scoring backcourt of Irving and Luka Doncic, Dallas was bested in five games by Boston — who won 64 regular-season games and went 16-3 in the playoffs.

Despite his long-standing animosity with Boston, Irving praised the Celtics right after Boston officially secured its sought-after 18th championship.

And earlier this week, Irving once again gave the Celtics plenty of props — labeling the 2023-24 roster as one of the best defensive teams in league history.

“It wasn’t like I could get isos every single time against everybody,” Irving noted on the “Locked On Mavs” podcast. “We’re going against one of the best defensive teams of all time, not one of the best defensive teams of just the past few seasons.

“That was a special group we [went] against. So I give credit to the Boston Celtics, while also staying motivated … to continue to be better and demand more out of myself so I don’t perform at that level.”

In five games against Boston during the 2024 NBA Finals, Irving averaged 19.8 points — shooting just 41.4 percent from the field and 27.6 percent from 3-point range. It was a far cry from his previous output earlier in the postseason, especially during a Western Conference Finals meeting with Minnesota where Irving averaged 27.0 points per game.

“It’s not the best reflection, right, of who I am, especially when — going into Boston and feeling like we have a great team, but also I’m feeling like the best I’ve felt in the past few years,” Irving said of coming up short to the Celtics in the Finals. “I have always known that going against some guys that I’ve played against is always going to be some of the toughest [matchups], or I played with. … Playing against Jrue Holiday, [Jayson Tatum], [Jaylen Brown], even Derrick White and Al Horford.

“That starting five with [Kristaps Porzinigs] thrown in there, they had a great defensive group, and they play extremely well off each other on the defensive end.”

Irving and the Mavericks will battle the Celtics again twice during the 2024-25 regular season, with their first meeting in Dallas on Jan. 25 before playing at TD Garden on Feb. 6.