Thomas, Celtics look out for No. 1

WALTHAM — With their win over Indiana and Cleveland losing in Denver Wednesday night, the Celtics woke up in the morning just a game behind the LeBrons in what is now an even more serious race for the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

And while overall the Celts need to be paying attention to their own house, some are looking out the window.

“(Expletive), I’m watching,” Isaiah Thomas said after yesterday’s practice. “Other guys might say (they’re not). Hey, I’m watching. I watched the end of the Cleveland game last night. I saw that they lost. But, I mean, we’re not chasing it. We’re just trying to control our own destiny, control where we are right now, and if we happen to somehow get the No. 1 seed, that would be great. But if not, hopefully we can just keep the No. 2 seed.”

The Celtics are even with the Cavaliers in the win column, but they’ve played two more games and have 26 defeats to Cleveland’s 24. But the C’s also have a more favorable schedule down the stretch in terms of opponent quality and home/road breakdown.

The value of getting the top seed would really only come into play if the Celts meet Cleveland in the East finals, and, no matter who gets the extra home game, the C’s would be a decided underdog in that series.

But achieving No. 1 is still something worthwhile to Thomas.

“I think that’s the ultimate goal, to be the best seed you possibly can, whatever that is,” he said. “We have a chance at No. 1 with being a game behind them, but at the same time we’ve just got to control what we can and worry about the things we can control and not worry about if Cleveland wins or loses. We’ve got to worry about just keeping where we are at least.”

The coach would simply like to keep blinders on his lads.

“I talked to the guys a little bit about all of the discussion’s going to be about the finality of it all, and what we need to focus on is preparing for our next opponent,” said Brad Stevens. “So our focus needs to be on Phoenix and not on anything else, and I think that’s the way we’ll continue to go.

“Obviously as you get further down the line and you are right close to a seed or between seeds or you have a seed locked up, then you maybe start to think ahead. But right now I think with our health situation being good, being able to find a rhythm and some time together, our focus needs to be about playing well (tonight).”

Judging the value of seeding, Stevens said, “You guys would all know better than I would. I’ve only been through a few years in the NBA, but I don’t take too much from our first playoff experience. I mean, I take certainly lessons learned, but we were going to struggle to win whether we had homecourt or not against that team. Last year I thought it obviously was important. But there are so many factors that go into it. You’ve got to be able to win on the road. You’ve got to be able to win at home. So ultimately you earn when you earn and then you play.”

Where two years ago the Celtics were merely firstround fodder for Cleveland, last season they finished in a four-way tie for third in the East and wound up in the fifth position after it was all sorted. They subsequently lost to Atlanta in six games, probably hindered more by key injuries than homecourt disadvantage.

Getting a better fix on seeding would be helpful to the Celts, but as of now Stevens has no plans to alter the rotation for purposes of rest.

“I’ve said all along we’ve gotten a lot of minutes managed by injury,” the coach said. “We’ve lost a lot of games to injury, and that’s in a weird, ironic sort of way been helpful, because those guys have already missed some games and they won’t have the wear and tear of 82 games on them necessarily.

“But I think that just as important to look at as managing the minutes is making sure they’re playing enough and making sure that they are playing together enough. So if there is a fine line, we’ll walk it, but our intention right now, based on what we’ve already been through with injuries, is to play everybody. And as we get into the final week, we’ll start to evaluate everything else.

“We don’t have a back-toback over the next week or two, so when that hits, maybe that changes your mind a little bit. But for now we’re full speed ahead. We’re going to play everybody.”