How the Celtics are defining Joe Mazzulla’s identity

By the way they’re handling the end of the season, it would appear the Celtics have accepted their fate.

Despite Cleveland’s recent slide — losing four straight before their win over the Utah Jazz on Sunday — the Celtics know they’ll be the two seed in the Eastern Conference, even if Joe Mazzulla won’t admit it.

“I don’t think anything’s locked up. We’ve got to win. That’s the most important thing. Win,” Mazzulla said last week, when the Celtics had just 14 games remaining. “Each game is a different challenge.”

Obviously, Mazzulla won’t call these games meaningless because, to him, they aren’t. At the same time, he and the Celtics are fully aware of the position they’re in — having the luxury to rest players and experiment with lineups in the final weeks without worrying about their playoff seeding.

The Celtics have taken advantage of their situation. Since March 1, they have played eight of their 11 games with two or more members of their top-six (Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, and Al Horford) on the bench.

With Sunday night’s 129-116 win over the Portland Trail Blazers (Holiday, Porzingis, and Brown out), they advanced to 8-0 in those games.

Boston hasn’t had its full rotation since February 23 — 15 games ago, yet they’ve gone 12-3 in that span, the best record in the Eastern Conference and second-best in the NBA, behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder (13-2).

“It’s just important that we keep doing whatever it takes to win,” Mazzulla said after the game. “Playing with the right mindset regardless of who plays.”

The team is embracing Mazzulla’s message and is executing it. Six of the nine players who took the floor on Sunday scored in double figures. Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard, and Luke Kornet combined for 53 points, 12 made threes, eight assists, and 12 rebounds.

The Celtics scored 129 points on a season-high 54.5% shooting from the field and 46.0% from three — their highest mark since January 8. Thirty-one of their 48 field goals (64.5%) were assisted, and their 140.2 offensive rating was their fourth-highest of the season.

“The approach we bring, the competitiveness that we bring, the attention to detail that we bring, it all has to remain the same because you can’t turn that on and off,” said Mazzulla. “Our guys have done a good job of that, and we need to continue to do that.”

It hasn’t mattered who’s been on the court or what lineups the Celtics have experimented with. The end-of-bench players have stepped up in the absence of key players. Rookie Baylor Scheierman, in particular, has seen more minutes in March than he did in the first five months of the season, and he’s made the most of them. The rookie is finding his shot, more than tripling his career scoring and three-point totals in March alone. He’s also surpassed his totals in steals, offensive rebounds, and assists from the previous five months.

But he hasn’t been the only one. With Pritchard in early foul trouble on Sunday night, two-way guard JD Davison got a shot at first-quarter minutes for the first time this season, playing a little over five minutes, with the Celtics finishing a +5 in that span.

The lineup on the floor with Davison primarily featured Scheierman, Torrey Craig, Tatum, and Kornet. They made five of their nine shot attempts (55.6%), with all five makes being assisted, despite that group never logging NBA minutes together before.

Davison finished the night with four points, one rebound, one assist, one steal, and one turnover in eight minutes of action. Craig added five points, two offensive rebounds, one assist, and one steal in 13 minutes — his third-most as a Celtic, and while neither player’s stat line jumps off the page, both did their jobs and helped the Celtics secure the win, and both had a positive plus-minus.

“I thought Torrey contributed a lot. I thought Baylor was good. JD hit a shot and got a couple of deflections. Everybody that played impacted winning. And that’s the most important thing, sticking to the things that impact winning every night and continuing to work to keep our edge.”

It helps to have a guy like Jayson Tatum, who finished with 30 points, nine rebounds, nine assists, two blocks, and a steal. Then you’ve got Derrick White chipping in with 17 points, eight assists, two steals, and a block, shooting 50% from the field and 40% from three.

Sam Hauser, who exploded for 24 points, drilling eight threes at an 80% clip, and Payton Pritchard, who, despite foul trouble, still added 16 points and hit some key shots in the second half, have also both shown they can step up and takeover when others are out.

And, of course, Luke Kornet and Al Horford are as steady as ever, doing the little things to keep the team rolling.

The depth of this team is stellar, but that doesn’t matter if they don’t bring it. Night after night, they stick to the core principles that have fueled their success, no matter the circumstances. As a result, they’re an NBA-best 10-1 in March, even with key players sidelined throughout those games.

This is exactly the identity Joe Mazzulla envisions. He’s a process-driven guy and expects that process to be followed every game. They’re not buying into the idea that these games don’t matter or losing focus. Every player on the roster is committed to the process, fully embracing Mazzulla’s vision of Celtics basketball.