Kyrie Irving believes the Brooklyn Nets' first round loss to the Boston Celtics was exactly what they needed to drive them this season.

“Get ’em up. I’ve got to get them up on both ends of the floor. I’ve got to be a complete player. Coming for different hardware this year, bro. I’ve been in the lab crazy, since we got 4-0’d,” Irving said on “The Boyz Night Podcast,” before adding three times that the sweep occurred just how it should have. “It was meant to happen like that.” 

The Celtics swept the Nets though the individual games were competitive.

“It was meant to happen like that,” Irving said. “Motivation, bro. We needed it. We needed that humbling experience, especially going against the Celtics. It was already built in to be that matchup. 

“So we’re going to see them again. We’re going to have to. They’re going to be where they’re going to be. But those young’uns over there in Boston, bro, I got to see them grow up. So to see them doing what they did last year on the Finals stage, making it that far, I’m glad they had to go through us.” 

After an offseason in which the Nets were nearly broken up, Irving and Kevin Durant will remain with the franchise and also play with Ben Simmons for the first time. Brooklyn can become a contender if they remain healthy. 

“That’s all that matters. That’s all that matters,” Irving said. “All the hypotheticals that come when nobody is healthy and when you’re not 100 percent. … I played 29 games, I barely played home games. It wasn’t a typical season I would have wanted. But things happen. I had to stand on a whole bunch of bigger stuff than just that.”