Celtics Aren’t Chasing History Books Despite Still-Perfect Home Record

BOSTON — Not a single team in the NBA has managed to defeat the Celtics through their first 20 home games played, but how much does it matter?

In beating a subpar Spurs team, 117-98, on Wednesday night, the Celtics preserved their undefeated run at home. Boston ran circles around San Antonio through an uncompetitive four quarters, becoming just the 13th team in NBA history to begin a campaign with a red-hot 20-0 start at home.

The Celtics already broke a previous 67-year-old franchise record of 18 consecutive home wins to start. And while that could prompt some comparisons to some of the all-time great Boston teams, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla prefers the attention be directed elsewhere moving forward with the team improving to a still-NBA-best 32-9.

“We have to stay in the space of, ‘We’re really good, but we can lose any game,’ and we gotta be really hard on ourselves,” Mazzulla said after Boston notched its third straight victory. “It’s annoying to be super critical of yourself, but we gotta do that. Just hold each other accountable.”

Defending their perfect home record without starters Kristaps Porzingis and Derrick White, the Celtics — on-brand — found a way to shuffle their pieces around and fill whatever voids needed to be filled. Guard Jrue Holiday matched a season-high 22 points, knocking down six 3-pointers with four rebounds and four assists.

As of late, Holiday’s found more success in establishing an offensive rhythm and aggressiveness up to par with what many expected upon the two-time All-Star’s arrival in Boston. Holiday has averaged 18.3 points on 57.1% shooting throughout the three-game winning streak — perhaps signaling a huge turn of the page for the versatile veteran.

“I think it’s really important just to find the joy in basketball,” Holiday explained. “In basketball, sometimes during this time (in) January to All-Star break it can get a little lethargic, get a little slow or feel like games are on top of each other. … To find different challenges for our team and find that joy in basketball, is really big right now.”

That joy that Holiday noted has become evident, both on and off the floor for the 2023-24 Celtics.

During the plane ride back from Boston’s trip to Toronto on Monday night, Jayson Tatum shared a team photo — something the Celtics hadn’t set up since the 2016-17 season, according to then-rookie Jaylen Brown.

“I’ve been on some great teams and we’ve had some great locker rooms and this marks up with one of the best groups and teams in character,” Brown said. “We all get along. It’s a good atmosphere. We got guys that come to work every day that are trying to improve and get better and all of that stuff. … I think since my rookie year we haven’t done a picture like that.”

The evergrowing bond of this new-and-improved Celtics squad is one that the locker room values, and one that’s performed up to its standard which was set in the offseason. While the records are flashy and provide some in-season thrill, keeping a tunnel vision at all times is the No. 1 priority and Boston has expressed that now 41 games deep into the year.