Kyrie Irving: There's no defense played in the NBA, we're playing like teams from the '60s

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Kyrie Irving is a prolific scoring point guard who dropped 43 points on the Toronto Raptors on Friday, and he had kudos for counterpart Kemba Walker of Charlotte for scoring 60 against Philadelphia on Saturday and then 43 on the Celtics Monday. Walker then scored 43 in Monday night’s 117-112 win over the Celtics.

Yet, he has a theory why the NBA is seeing all these high-scoring games. Klay Thompson scored 52 two weeks ago in Chicago. LeBron James ran up 51 on Miami on Sunday. Scoring in the NBA is soaring.

“I think not a lot of defense is being played,” he said prior to the game. “Teams are scoring like it’s the 1960s or ’70s. It’s 132 to 112, 142 to 121. There’s no defense. There’s just none. We got into a Utah-Boston game and it’s [98-86] and you can see the difference in effort in every single night, which I get from an NBA player’s standpoint, the amount of games we play, but sometimes you have to make guys miss.

“We’re all NBA players and if you see an open look at the rim, I’m pretty sure we’re going to knock it down over 50 percent of the time if it’s wide open. More or less no defense and effort. That’s what it comes down to; nobody should be scoring that many points.”

Irving was adamant about crediting the skill of the offensive players but he said defense have to react accordingly.

“You have to give credit to the offensive players for making the shots but also I think the emphasis on making double-teaming and just getting the ball out of someone’s hands,” he said. “Just doing the little things to help your teammates guard a great player or a great team, just a total team effort and team collective activity to kind of limit those high scoring games.”

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