Why Celtics Winning At Home Means So Much To Jayson Tatum This Season

The Boston Celtics didn’t just beat the Cleveland Cavaliers at TD Garden on Thursday night to sweep the two-game miniseries, they also improved to 12-0 at home for the first time since the 2007-08 season.

Derrick White said after Boston’s win on Tuesday that the Celtics have been cooking at home because they have the “best fans in the league.”

Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum echoed White’s comments but added a little bit more to the simple statement.

“To be honest, the last two years, we haven’t played great at home,” Tatum told NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin. “We lost a lot of home playoff games, which is not normal for us. So it feels good to reward the best fans in the league by winning at home and hopefully we continue to.”

While the Celtics home record wasn’t abysmal in any sense last season (32-9), Boston did drop six of its 11 games at the Garden in the 2022-23 postseason. In 2021-22, the C’s went 28-13 at home in the regular season and 8-6 in the playoffs.

Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla reiterated he is trying to create a team that goes out and takes care of business, regardless of where the team is playing.

“Home-court advantage is important from a standpoint of you want to be able to play in the Garden with the fans, be in the city and have that, I think that’s important,” Mazzulla said after the win. “They might not be able to control that, but we have to be able to play regardless of the circumstances. I think we’re starting to kind of learn, figure out how to do that more than be defined by that.”

Boston will look to remain unbeaten at home when the Orlando Magic arrive at TD Garden on Friday night. The Magic defeated the Celtics 113-96 in the first meeting between the two clubs in November.