Mask Off: Kyrie Irving ditches face gear, lights up Warriors

Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving adjusts his mask, which he's been wearing for protection after suffering a facial fracture last week. (Frank Franklin II/AP)

Sportsnet Staff November 16, 2017, 11:14 PM

The NBA’s two best teams squared off Thursday night, so you knew the contest would be ripe with storylines. Among the best of those?

Kyrie Irving and his broken face.

The Celtics forward ditched his protective facial mask midway through the third quarter to help Boston defeat the Golden State Warriors, 92-88, and extend its win streak to 14 games.

Irving was having a rough opening half, before finding himself late in the fourth quarter, sans mask. He scored 11 points in the final four and a half minutes of the contest, finishing with 16 points, six assists and five rebounds in 33 minutes.

Not bad for a guy playing with a facial fracture.

Irving was inadvertently hit by teammate Aron Baynes in a game last Friday and missed one contest before returning to action with a mask that he’s supposed to wear for two weeks as his face healed.

“It’s almost like having somewhat foggy blinders on,” Irving said after playing with the mask in Tuesday’s win over Brooklyn. “When I take off the mask, I can see everything and when I have the mask on, I’m really dialed into what’s in front of me. My peripherals are a little cut off, up and down. It’s something to get used to. It is what it is.”

Predictably, as soon as Irving ripped off the gear on Thursday, Twitter chimed in with … of course … references from Future’s hit song “Mask Off.”

Here’s a sampling of some of the best tweets.

https://twitter.com/OnlyInBOS/status/931352701232975872