Kyrie Irving is playing his best basketball as a Celtic and other takeaways from Friday's win

1. Terry Rozier’s outburst couldn’t have come at a better time: The Celtics’ second unit has been in dire offensive straits in the past two weeks, and Rozier changed that early on Friday night with some steady, selective shot making. He missed just three attempts (8-of-11 FG) overall in the midst of a career-best 23 points over 30 minutes. The best part about the performance that snapped him out of a 6-of-29 shooting slump over the past five games was that he let the game come to him. The 23-year-old didn’t force open looks, as had been the case in recent weeks and the percentages paid off because of it. Unlike Marcus Smart in past seasons, Rozier has shown the potential to be an above-average 3-point shooter and it showed on Friday night.

“Law of averages will play themselves out with him,” Brad Stevens said after the game. “He’s a really good shooter; made some big ones in a lot of different games this year – including on Wednesday night to give us a chance to get back in that. But I think we want him to be ready to fire when he catches it.”

Rozier’s scoring sparked one of the best bench performances by the offense all year (before the garbage time fourth quarter), as the group combined to score 50 of Boston’s 118 points.

2. Jaylen Brown was given permission to miss Saturday’s game for his friend’s funeral: The 21-year-old swingman will travel to Atlanta first thing Saturday for the funeral of his friend Trevin Steede. He hopes to make it back in time for the team’s game in Indiana (8 p.m. ET start) but Stevens has given him permission to miss the game, if necessary, to be with his friend’s family.

“I think Brad has been really great in this process,” Brown said Friday night. “Just not even just somebody to talk to, also just allowing you to deal with what’s best, my family and their family, so everybody can deal with it. He’s been great. We’ll see how it goes and hopefully, I’ll be able to make it from there. If not, I have to just regroup with my family and I’ll see you guys next game.”

3. Kyrie Irving is playing his best basketball as a Celtic over the past week: The All-Star point guard wasn’t needed for a full four quarters for the hosts to handily dispatch the Magic but the past week has easily been the best stretch of Irving’s career in Green. He’s averaging 32.8 points per game over the last four contests on 64 percent shooting from the field, 60 percent shooting from 3-point range and 86 percent shooting from the free throw line (7.5 attempts per game). Perhaps the most noteworthy part of that output is that he's putting together that kind of production while needing just 17 shot attempts to do so. Those kinds of numbers will leapfrog Irving into the top-5 of some MVP discussions quite quickly after a mediocre offensive start to the year.

4. Marcus Morris will miss Saturday’s game in Indiana to rest his sore knee on the second end of the back-to-back. He’ll stay back in Boston to rehab and could end up having a fun night for himself by staying behind.

“Coach would rather I sleep in my own bed, rehab tomorrow,” Morris explained. “I’ll probably go to the Jay Z. concert. Do something. I’d rather be on the road with my team, honestly. But he made the decision.”

The veteran forward isn’t too worried about the health of his knee as the C’s continue to stay extra cautious with his recovery. He played 26 minutes during Friday's win.

“It’s better,” Morris said of his sore knee. “I feel like I could play. If this was playoffs I’d be playing, or if it was a game we really needed I’d be playing. But we’re on a good run. Our rookies are playing well and our young guys are playing well.”

5. Al Horford is a passing maestro: The big man scored in single digits (five points) for the fourth straight game on Friday but it didn’t matter as he turned into a defacto point guard for most of the night, tying a career-high with 10 assists in just 26 minutes.

“You know, these guys and a lot of other teams are trying to guard (Horford) at the three,” Stevens explained, “And often using guards switching to do so – so he’s doing a good job of finding the next right play, which is usually getting sure, making sure the ball is getting to the other side of the floor to attack those switches. And I thought all night long, his ability to handle the ball, his ability to pass the ball, was a real benefit to us.”

If the likes of Jayson Tatum (50 percent from 3) and Brown (41.5 percent from 3) remain significant threats from beyond the arc, Horford should continue to pick apart defenses from the top of the key as opponents have no one they can help off of in the starting five.