"Get Out" star Lil Rel Howery is a Boston Celtics fan ... but he says there's a silver lining to the team losing a couple games, and he's telling TMZ Sports his glass-half-empty theory.
If you're asking why Lil Rel is a Celtics fan in the first place, he says it's because he developed a kinship with Kyrie Irving while the two men were shooting Irving's upcoming "Uncle Drew" movie.
Rel says it's that friendship that makes it kinda okay ... hell, he almost even likes it ... that the C's seem to be struggling to beat LeBron with no go-to NBA superstar.
"I've been watching all these stories about how the team is better without Kyrie and all this dumb sh*t and I was like, ah, no, this is superstar time."
"So, I'm just saying like, Kyrie, that's his team, man. So, don't ever question that sh*t again. It's his f*cking team. He's a superstar. They need to win with him."
Translation -- Boston's struggles reinforce just how important Kyrie is to that team ... which, in a weird way, makes Rel happy.