Jaylen Brown on Celtics: “I was more focused on how were playing than what our seed was”

With another blowout win over the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night, the Boston Celtics have strung together three straight at a crucial time in the season. With only seven games left in the regular season, the top of the Eastern Conference is a dog fight between the Celtics and Bucks for the #1 seed. Boston sits in second, 1.5 games back of Milwaukee and 2.5 ahead of Philadelphia, and with a matchup with the Bucks on Thursday, the Celtics could very well find themselves in prime position to reclaim the top seed.

The Bucks went on an insane hot streak to pull ahead of Boston, but after cooling off to a degree, the one seed is still very much in play. According to Malcolm Brogdon, Milwaukee overtaking them in the standings was a wakeup call for the team to play the right way and get back to what got them there in the first place.

“I think we’re getting more and more locked in,” said Brogdon. “I think it’s apparent. I think when Milwaukee took the number one seed from us after the break, it was sort of a shock to us that we had dropped because we had created some separation between us and them. And that’s something we want. We want the number one seed. I think this team understands the importance of having home court advantage in the playoffs, so that’s something we’re going after.”

If the team failed to retake the one seed, Brogdon said, “if we don’t get it…regardless, you’ve got to play basketball regardless. You’re gonna get people’s best game, and regardless you’re gonna have to go through teams like Milwaukee. So we’re going to be prepared regardless.”

The emphasis over these past few weeks as the team worked through struggles has not been on getting the one seed, but on playing the right brand of basketball and winning games.

Joe Mazzulla said as much back on March 5th following the team’s loss to the Knicks. “The only thing you can control is try to win the games,” said Mazzulla. “We put ourselves in the best possible chance to win, but [I have] zero concern. Just because there are 17 games left doesn’t mean that there’s any different than how a stretch of the season would go.” Fast forward to now, and that message still rings true as the team has begun to ramp back up to the same style of basketball that made them a dominant force at the beginning of the season.

Going against a lottery-bound Spurs team could have spelt disaster for the…