‘None of that stuff really matters’: Jaylen Brown, Celtics not looking at standings amid hot streak
The Celtics are several games in front in the Eastern Conference standings, but they're focused on improving ahead of the playoffs.
The Celtics continued their dominance Saturday night, defeating the Knicks 116-102 to improve to 45-12 and further cement their spot as the team with the league’s best record.
With Saturday’s win, Boston’s lead in the Eastern Conference standings moved to eight games, slowly building a near-insurmountable lead as the season nears the homestretch. The Celtics are also five games ahead of the Timberwolves for the league’s best record.
But as the Celtics separate themselves from the pack, Jaylen Brown admitted that he hasn’t paid much attention to the standings recently, acknowledging they aren’t much of a factor in the postseason beyond who gets home-court advantage.
“When it comes down to the playoffs, none of that stuff really matters,” Brown told reporters of the Celtics’ place in the standings. “I feel like it’s going to be about matchups, it’s going to be about playing hard. Obviously, home court matters, so that is key, but when you get into the thick of it, you got to win basketball games, regardless of what your seed is.
“If anything, it puts more pressure on you. But I think we’re an experienced team. We’ve been in these situations before, and I think we’re ready.”
Brown led the way for the Celtics on Saturday, at least offensively. The All-Star wing scored a team-high 30 points on 13 of 24 shooting, taking advantage of mismatches in isolation situations. But Brown’s 20 first-half points were much-needed though because Boston struggled to slow down New York’s offense, allowing 58 points on 51.8 percent shooting from the field through halftime.
The Celtics’ defense tightened up in the second half, allowing the Knicks to score just 44 points on 38.5 percent shooting from the field. Brown believes the Celtics could have put up a better defensive performance on Saturday, eyeing improvement with the playoffs less than two months away.
“I think we can be even better on defense,” Brown said. “I think we gave up a lot of points tonight. … They should have had around 88 [points]. That was just some mistakes that we made that, in the playoffs and stuff like that, you don’t want to make. Teams get on runs, so we can guard a lot better than we did tonight.”
Brown’s sentiment that the Celtics have another gear in them was shared by Al Horford. The veteran big shared that Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla is still pushing the team to improve as its separating itself in the standings.
“I can just speak to we’re continuing to play good basketball,” Horford said. “We’re really trying to play the right way. I feel like Joe is really challenging us to continue to get better. This is the stretch of the season where we can really take it to another level, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
In addition to the league’s best record, the Celtics also have, by far, the best net rating in the association. The Celtics’ net rating improved to 10.3 with Saturday’s 14-point win, which is 2.4 points better than the Thunder, who are in second. Their net rating also improved to the best mark in the last 60 seasons of the franchise on Saturday, boasting the league’s best offensive rating (121.2) and the third-best defensive rating (110.7).
Horford wasn’t sure what a better version of the Celtics looks like when asked, but he believes it exists.
“That’s a really good question, but I feel like we’re not where we need to be yet, and that’s a good thing,” Horford said.
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