After Irving left Boston in free agency this summer, the Celtics replaced him with Kemba Walker. Through 15 games, Boston is 11-4, holding the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. Brooklyn is 8-8, and has won four of the five games Irving has missed with a shoulder issue. “My brother. Great teammate,” Thompson said. “At the end of the day, if I’m going to go to war, need a dog, an MF that can go and hoop I’m definitely going to put him on my team. I mean, the chatter is for you guys to talk about. Teams lose a couple of games and they say the same things about us — what’s going on and blah blah blah. It’s just chatter. At the end of the day, when that untucked Kyrie jersey is out everyone is scared.”