Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving sent a message to his former team’s fans after Game 1 of the NBA Finals, and the Boston Celtics responded by showing his quote to fans ahead of Game 2.

Irving, who spent two seasons with the Celtics from 2022 to 2024, said after the first game of the series that he expected the crowd at TD Garden to be louder than they were. Before Game 2 tipped off, Irving’s quote was shown on the jumbotron.

Celtics put Kyrie Irving’s quote from Game 1 on the jumbotron to hype up TD Garden 👀
 

The quote shown before the game was likely a motivational tactic from Boston to get its fans fired up. Now, the Celtics are hoping their fans will bring plenty of energy as they look to go up 2-0 in the series.

Though Irving had two outstanding years in Boston, his exit has made for a tumultuous relationship between him and Celtics fans in recent years. Every time Irving is back in TD Garden, he’s met with thunderous boos from the crowd.

While Celtics fans will look to disrupt Irving’s game, he’ll look to drown out the crowd noise and focus on getting a win. After a strong showing in the Western Conference Finals, Irving struggled in Game 1 with just 12 points on 6-of-19 from the field.

Irving has plenty of Finals experience, and he’ll look to use it to have a turnaround game on Sunday.