Celtics Becoming Kings of the Comeback

Down 89-82 late in the fourth quarter to the Dallas Mavericks, the Celtics’ winning streak appeared all but over. However, Boston overcame this deficit as they have made a habit of doing.

With the Boston Celtics riding a 16-game winning streak, you could not blame someone for assuming the team has skated to easy victories over the last month.

But, this perception of the team’s remarkable surge could not be further from the truth.

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Despite the Celtics having not lost a single game since October 18, the team has been forced to overcome considerable obstacles as of late. The Celtics have shoved off double-digit deficits in each of the three games, coming from behind to knock off the Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Hawks and Dallas Mavericks.

Over the second and third quarters combined on Monday night, the Mavericks outscored the Celtics 55-35 while taking an eight-point advantage into the fourth quarter. Following a layup by Mavericks forward Dwight Powell with 7:47 remaining, the gap had grown to 87-74.

The Celtics were unfazed, however. After an and-one tip-in by Marcus Morris and consecutive buckets by Jayson Tatum, the second coming off a nifty alley-oop pass from Marcus Smart, Boston had whittled the deficit down to 89-86.

Dallas pushed their advantage up to 91-86 with under 90 seconds remaining, but Smart stepped up and canned a rare three-pointer off the dribble, preceding a Tatum alley-oop layup that tied the score at 96 and sent the game to overtime.

Against Atlanta, the game flow went similarly for the Celtics. The team played uninspired basketball in the first quarter as they were outscored, 35-20. They methodically sliced at the Hawks lead in the second quarter, holding Atlanta scoreless for the final three minutes of the first half while cutting the gap to 50-44.

Boston then exploded for 66 points in the second half, putting the Hawks away with a 20-13 run in the final six minutes of regulation time to eke out a 110-99 win.

In their most recent home game, a 92-88 silencing of the defending champion Warriors, the Celtics squared up a 17-point deficit and defeated it with some deadly defense. After being outscored, 28-18, in the first quarter, Boston yielded just 60 points to Golden State in the final three quarters, an unheard of accomplishment considering the Warriors put up 47 points in the third quarter alone against the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night.

Kyrie Irving scored 11 points in the fourth quarter in this victory, enhancing his rapidly developing reputation as Boston’s new Mr. Clutch. Over the past three games, Irving has outscored opponents  in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime by himself, 36-34. In clutch time, which NBA.com considers to be the final five minutes of a game, Irving leads the league with 5.9 points per game. This mark is a full point above the holder of second place in this category, the Heat’s Dion Waiters.

Irving is shooting 61.5 percent from the field in clutch situations with a plus-minus rating of 3.6. For fans that play fantasy basketball, Irving is putting up an average of 8.7 fantasy points in the last five minutes of ballgames, second only to the Bulls’s Jerian Grant (Jerian Grant?!).

The pressure of performing in crunch time does not seem to affect Irving in any way. After scoring 47 points to defeat the Mavericks, he told the Associated Press, “I don’t really see it as a pressure situation. It’s just like being in a park 7-7 and game is eight.”

Next: Irving's Finest Performance Keeps Streak Alive

If Irving continues to thrive under the spotlight, the Celtics should have no doubt about their ability to continue battling back from late-game deficits.