Kyrie Irving has taken an elevated defensive responsibility, admitting that he is taking the most burden on that end in his four-year career.

"My first three years, it was just making excuses of offensive burdens and all this other stuff and at the end of the day, I just have to do it for the greater good of our team," Irving said. "In order for our team to win, I have to be that kind of guy on the defensive end. You can only talk about it for so long and at one point it just has to be done.

"Going into my fourth year, it was just a conscious effort just to have a better focus level on that end," he said. "It starts with that. No matter whom we are playing against, guys are trying to stop me and I got to try to stop other guys. It's the attitude I have every single night. Of the teams, it's their objective to stop me. So in the back of my mind it's like, 'Why can't I be a great defender? I don't understand.' It's just all about effort."

Irving has tried to be a better individual and team defender.

"So it's not as much pressure for other guys to help me," Irving said. "I'd rather help other guys and be in position to help and stop my guy instead of the other way around and always being that guy on film. I was on film a lot for the last three years. You get tired of it after a while. You want to be that guy that your teammates trust on a day in, day out basis."