Al Horford and Kyrie Irving are on another level right now and other takeaways from Celtics-Mavericks

Scattered thoughts after the Celtics closed out their homestand with an impressive win over the Mavericks. 

1. Kyrie Irving loves crunch time against the Mavericks

The All-Star has been impressive during "winning time" all year, but he has taken his exploits to another level in two head-to-head matchups against the Mavericks over the past four weeks. Here’s a look at his cumulative stats for the final five minutes of regulation and overtime of those two Celtic wins: 15 minutes, 22 points, 9-of-13 FG, 3-of-4 FT, +27. Last month, the point guard led a double-digit rally in the fourth quarter to the win. On Wednesday, he broke open an 85-85 game with seven points down the stretch.

“Just winning time,” Irving said Wednesday night after scoring nine fourth-quarter points. “Simple as that, man. It’s always fun, seeing when the game is close -- I know you guys are probably getting tired of me saying that -- but it’s fun. It’s fun for me because you really just have to blow into your bag of tricks and prepare yourself for whatever the defense is about to throw at you. Sometimes you catch the defense on their heels. They put Wesley Matthews on me at the end of the game so you get a big defender now, probably a little bit more space than having a Yogi Ferrell chase your around. There are just adjustments that get to be made in the fourth quarter that don’t get to be made in the first three quarters, so (I) just try to take advantage of those things.”

The 25-year-old has shot over 50 percent from the field in eight of his last nine games.

2. Daniel Theis is turning into a rebounding phenom

I’ll be going into greater depth on the German in a BSJ post later this week, but his work on the glass deserves some notice in the meantime. After posting a career-high 11 rebounds in just 17 minutes against the Mavericks, Theis now has a top-20 rebounding rate in the NBA, grabbing 18 percent of all available boards. He’s not playing enough minutes to qualify for the leaderboard just yet, but that type of production from a rookie on a league minimum deal has been a luxury for Brad Stevens all year. He also got plenty of help on the glass from Terry Rozier (nine rebounds) and Jayson Tatum (10 rebounds) on a night where Dallas got just six offensive rebounds despite shooting 39 percent from the field.

“I thought Theis’ rebounding was great,” Stevens said. “The best example of our team really flying around is when our guards rebound like they did at the start of the fourth quarter. You know, Shane (Larkin) is in there going above guys as they’re blocking out. Terry (Rozier)’s in there. Obviously Marcus Smart does it all the time. Jayson Tatum does it all the time. Like, those are – that’s usually a good indicator that we’re pretty locked in, but I thought our bench – Theis specifically, Shane, Terry – those guys all gave us great lifts.”

3. Shane Larkin picked a great time to snap out of his funk

The 25-year-old journeyman hadn’t played in four games (partially due to a sore back) and was mired in a 1-of-15 shooting slump dating back to November 12th when Stevens called him into action on Wednesday night. Despite an ugly shooting start (1-of-4) in the second quarter, Larkin’s confidence remained high in his jumper. On a second unit that was in desperate need of offense without Marcus Morris in the fold, Larkin stepped up to the plate with 11 points in 15 minutes on 4-of-8 shooting (including three 3s).

“Just mentally, I’m just sitting over there telling myself, ‘If Coach calls your name, then go in there and do what you do.’” Larkin said after the game. “And I just do what I do, whether it’s go make an impact on the defensive end, get some steals, pick up full court, try to get the defense going. Or offensively make an open shot or two. I just go out there and do what I can do for the team every single time. I don’t know if it’s gonna be scoring, assisting, stealing, defense. I don’t know what it’s gonna be, but I’m gonna go out there every night and give 100 percent effort, 120 percent, and just try to make impact plays.”

It’s the third time this season that Larkin’s contributions have directly led to a win (at Philly, vs. Charlotte) in what stands as another valuable depth signing piece for the end of Boston’s bench this year.

4. Al Horford has flirted with a triple-double every night for the past week

Amid the hoopla over Irving and Tatum, it’s easy to overlook the kind of production that the 31-year-old veteran is putting up. Over his last four games, he’s averaging 18 points, 7.5 rebounds and 8.0 assists while shooting a scorching 61 percent from the field. In related news, the Celtics have won four straight games.

5. 22 wins are incredibly impressive when you consider how many have been rallies

The historic winning streak may have come to an end, but the C’s domination in the win-loss column has gone nowhere. They just closed out a 4-1 homestand with four straight wins and are still on top of the Cavs by 3.5 games in the Eastern Conference standings despite 13 consecutive victories from Cleveland. Seven of Boston’s 22 wins have from double-digit deficits during this young season and yet it feels like the C’s have been in control of many of those games down the stretch after rallying early in the second half. They’ve never been blown out and have lost by double digits just once (10 vs. Detroit). That kind of consistency is making it easier and easier to buy in on this team finding a way to play into June this postseason.