While inconsistency had been a problem across the board for the Celtics before this four-game winning streak, no group endured the highs and lows of a seesaw stretch more than the bench.

One night the reserves looked absolutely dreadful (see last Sunday's loss to Cleveland, where the second unit generated just 15 points), then turned around the next night and looked awesome (Boston's reserves scored 61 points -- their second-highest output of the season -- against Detroit on the second night of a back-to-back on Monday).

On Saturday night in Dallas, the bench didn't have it. A five-man unit of Rasheed Wallace, Marquis Daniels, Michael Finley, Nate Robinson, and Glen Davis combined to connect on 5-of-14 shots (0 for 3 from beyond the arc) for 13 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 assists. Take Glen Davis (7 points, 4 rebounds, 17 minutes) out of the mix and the bench was a gruesome 2 of 9 for six points and five rebounds over 50 combined minutes.

Which is a bit surprising considering that Daniels and Finley have roots in Dallas, while Wallace should have been amped for another crack at Dirk Nowitzki. Regardless, the unit didn't have it Saturday and Boston's starters needed to shoulder the load.

But as bad as Boston's reserves were, they did do one thing: They prevented Dallas from running away with the game and kept the deficit manageable until the starters could come back in. But even Celtics coach Doc Rivers admitted he could do little more than stare at the clock during Saturday's game, just waiting to send his first unit back in.

"Our bench was struggling in the second half, but we had to sit [the starters]," said Rivers, whose team was playing its fifth game in seven days, including the second night of a back-to-back on the road, which left the coaching staff desperate to limit the starters' minutes. "I was literally subbing on the clock [in the fourth quarter]. I kept looking at the clock and, even though we were not scoring at all, [the Mavericks] weren't running away from us.

"My number was six. If they got it down to six, then we had to sub. They finally did and we made the sub. I told my staff, we have to buy minutes for these guys, no matter what, and we were able to do that."

The Celtics boasted a three-point lead early in the fourth quarter on Finley's lone basket of the game, but the Mavericks quickly stormed ahead, which forced Rivers to slowly put his starters back in. Ray Allen checked back in with little more than nine minutes to go and his scoring prevented Dallas from getting too far ahead.

While the lead ballooned as high as seven when Jose Juan Barea drilled a 3-pointer with 8:33 to play, Rivers remained diligent and didn't put Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett back in until there was just under seven minutes to play and Boston had already whittled the lead back to two thanks to Allen.

While Rivers has acknowledged that the bench is still trying to find its own rhythm considering the late-season additions of Robinson and Finley, the Celtics certainly need more consistency from that second unit when the playoffs arrive.