Celtics Notes: Kyrie Irving’s 47 Points Save Boston As Bench Struggles Again

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Nov 20, 2017

Kyrie Irving was a one-man wrecking crew for the Boston Celtics on Monday night.

He scored a season-high 47 points to lead the C’s to a 110-102 overtime win over the Dallas Mavericks. The victory extends Boston’s win streak to 16.

Perhaps the most impressive part of Irving’s outing was his efficiency. He made 16 of his 22 shots (5-for-7 from 3-point range) and 10 of his 11 free throws.

Irving entered Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks shooting 32 percent on 3-point attempts this season. But after hitting on 10 of his last 13 3-pointers over the last two games, Irving now is shooting 39 percent from beyond the arc, which is very close to his career average.

His great performance started early, as he led the way with 18 points and hit all six of his shot attempts in the first quarter. He finished the first half with 25 on 9-for-10 shooting.

Crunch time was when Irving carried Boston, going toe-to-toe with Dallas for nearly a quarter of the game.

Ten of his points came in overtime, highlighted by this and-1 play in the final minute that essentially sealed the win.

The Celtics have trailed by double-digits in each of their last four games, and Irving has been the player leading the comeback every time. He’s averaging 29.5 points per game during that span, and it looks like he’s starting to hit a higher gear after a somewhat slow start to the season offensively (by his standards).

— This Irving stat is pretty amazing.

https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/932827639701737472

— Irving is the first Celtic since Paul Pierce in 2006 to score 45-plus points and dish out five or more assists. In fact, only Pierce and Isaiah Thomas have scored more points in a regular-season game for the Celtics since 2001.

— Jaylen Brown scored 22 points on 8-for-13 shooting (3-for-6 on 3-pointers), including a clutch step-back jumper over Dirk Nowitzki that gave Boston a 104-102 lead with 1:39 left in overtime. He’s now scored 20-plus points in three straight games for the first time in his career.

— Jayson Tatum scored 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting, giving him 10-plus points in 10 of the last 11 games. But his greatest contribution on the night was three clutch defensive rebounds in the final minutes of overtime. Tatum, Brown and Marcus Morris led the team with nine rebounds apiece.

— Boston’s bench has played poorly over the last few games, and it didn’t get any better to start Monday as the unit shot 2-for-12 in the first half. Marcus Smart shot 1-for-7 in the first half, including an 0-for-5 mark from beyond the arc. The bench finished with 15 points on 4-for-22 shooting. Smart (12 points) and Terry Rozier (three points) were the only second-unit players to score.

— Here’s how Boston’s 16-game win streak ranks in team history.

— The Celtics erased a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit in seven minutes. Rebounding was a huge part of that late run.

— This was an unreal sequence later in the fourth quarter. Tatum and Smart both made miraculous saves to keep the ball in play, and the last one found Irving, who drilled a 3-pointer to trim the Dallas lead to three.

https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/932817242701680640

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