BOSTON — Kyrie Irving wasn’t in a loquacious mood after the Boston Celtics’ win on Sunday. And, leaving aside any potential reasoning for being fairly brief with postgame responses, the fact is his game had spoken loudly enough and at length just moments earlier.

He’d gone for 30 points and 11 assists in a wildly entertaining 131-129 victory over Oklahoma City, guiding the Celtics to their fourth straight win and ninth in their last 10. It was his career-high fourth 30-10 game in a season and career-high 14th double-double for a campaign.

According to statistician Dick Lipe, he is the first Celtic to have 20-plus points and five-plus assists in nine straight games since Larry Bird back in the 1980s – before Irving was born.

And while he wasn’t as warm as usual from long distance (1 for 5 from 3-point range), he was the model of efficiency on 2-pointers, making 13 of 14 to help the Celtics to 59.3 percent shooting overall.

“I mean, he is one of the best one-on-one players in the league,” said Oklahoma City’s Terrance Ferguson.

And some of his best stuff didn’t even show up on the stat sheet, such as his defensive gem against Russell Westbrook with 12 seconds left and the Celtics holding on by their fingertips to a 130-128 lead.

Westbrook had gathered a head of steam and had reached the top of the 3-point arc when Irving jabbed at him and forced the author of yet another triple-double to lose control. The ball wound up in the hands of Al Horford, who’d been guarding the paint and was credited with the steal.

“Instincts,” said Irving.

“Kyrie’s in the right spot a lot,” said Celtics Coach Brad Stevens, “and obviously that’s always great when you can create a turnover on that play. But he’s got unbelievable instincts. And he also has an unbelievable ability to recognize the biggest threat in the room.”

But with all due respect to Westbrook’s 22 points, 12 rebounds and 16 assists, not to mention Paul George’s 37 points, the biggest threat in the oversized dance hall above North Station was one Kyrie Andrew Irving. In the last two minutes in particular, he was the hub around which the Celtics revolved.

There was the 12-foot turnaround from the lane over Dennis Schroder that gave the Celtics a 125-120 lead with 1:50 left.

There was the slick inbounds pass to a cutting Jayson Tatum 23 seconds later for a layup and 127-121 advantage.

There was, after the Thunder had cut the margin to two, the drive past Ferguson and twisting layup over Steven Adams and Westbrook.

And there was the turnover Irving created. Horford got the ball to Tatum, who was fouled deliberately by Adams with 7.4 on the clock. The ball had gotten into Irving’s hands on the Adams hit, and, as the crowd roared, Irving pounded the ball in celebration.

The end of the game had largely been in his hands, too, and with the exception of a turnover with 51 seconds left, he had treated it with care.

“It’s winning time,” Irving said, “so I feel like that when the ball’s in my hands, I’ve just got to make the right play. So being down the stretch and just trying to make the right decisions.”

Westbrook was trying to make those same type of decisions, too, but Irving made better ones on this day. It was a nationally televised matchup, and he does not back away from such.

“I mean, going against the best is always a great challenge, but, you know, it shouldn’t matter who you’re playing against,” Irving said.

“You just want to stay consistent in this game. That’s how you get respect, so that’s all I really care about, getting wins.”

The Celtics have gotten more of those lately, allowing themselves to move into third place in the Eastern Conference standings (though even with Philadelphia record-wise at 34-19).Where they were unable to close things out against Golden State last weekend, they did their job here.

“Obviously we got fortunate on a few of them, but down the stretch, we’ve been in that position a few times this season,” Irving said, “so we know our go-tos and what we’ve got to do to compete on both ends of the floor to get a win, so…”

As for whether this is closer to what the Celtics are looking for, Irving was fairly matter-of-fact.

“It’s just another regular season game in the books,” he said. “You know, take what you can learn from that.”

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