C’s put away Mavs late
Kyrie again pushes Green to victory
Guerschon Yabusele hit his third 3-pointer as a Celtic last night, and on his way back down the floor celebrated by shooting an imaginary arrow, and following up the motion with a so-called dab, covering his face with the inside of his right arm.
That the big rookie forward had the opportunity to try out a new celebration, or that Shane Larkin again played crunch time minutes, and Daniel Theis out of necessity led the team with 11 rebounds, speaks to what the Celtics have been able to do with their depth this season.
Jaylen Brown missed last night’s game with a contact lens-related eye infection, Marcus Morris also sat out because of recurring knee soreness, and once again Brad Stevens had to go deep into his bullpen in the Celtics’ 97-90 win over Dallas.
The Celtics, building a fresh streak, have won their last four games and six of their last seven.
“Them being very professional and staying very focused, those guys are working harder than any of us every day because they’re in the gym, they’re getting extra shots, extra conditioning,” Al Horford said of the reserves, with 11 players reaching the floor last night. “It’s good to see them get rewarded.
“Guerschon was great, his energy was great. Shane, very impressive, came out aggressive, and then defensively he had some big plays for us. Happy to see the bench guys get some minutes.”
And on a horrid shooting night when a win meant overcoming a 41.4-percent shooting performance, not to mention ratcheting up their defense following a porous first half, the Celtics again needed a strong finishing kick from their closer, Kyrie Irving.
The Celtics guard scored nine of his 23 points in the last 6:46 of the game, a familiar ending for anyone who has watched Irving throughout his All-Star career.
Mavs coach Rick Carlisle saw Irving do something similar on Nov.20, when the Celts won in Dallas in overtime. Irving followed up a five-point fourth by scoring 10 of the C’s 14 points in overtime, including their first six of the extra period.
Something similar happened last night after Harrison Barnes, with a tough 15-footer over a fully extended Jayson Tatum, tied the score at 85-85 with 4:31 left.
“I don’t have an exact recollection of it,” said Carlisle. “Irving made some amazing plays, which he always does.”
The Celtics responded to Barnes’ jumper with a 12-2 run, including three drives from Irving — a dizzying push off the fast break, another quick drive for a three-point play with the Mavs again caught on their heels, and a banking onehanded floater.
All of it was scored in traffic, of course.
These late displays by Irving, which are every bit as overpowering as the fourth quarter performances turned in by Isaiah Thomas last season, are having one undesired effect: They are labeling the Celtics as a second-half team.
“You don’t want to necessarily just be a secondhalf team,” said Irving. “But some of our first halves haven’t been the best, and we understand that. Teams just come in and just hit us right away, which we’ve come to expect. And we always try to keep it within distance, especially if we’re not particularly playing well on both ends of the floor.
“In the second half we just have to raise our level. Otherwise teams are going to kick our butts,” he said.
Last night, in addition to Irving coming through on a night when the overall offensive picture was murky at best, the Celtics put this one away defensively.
After spotting Dallas 57 points on 46.2 percent 3-point shooting in the first half, the Celts limited the Mavs to 33 second half points on 31.8 percent shooting, including 20 percent (3for-15) from downtown.
“They were playing really well the first half and I don’t think they were feeling us, and we turned our intensity up,” said Horford. “We needed to do more, make them a little more uncomfortable, and once we started to do that, it worked.”