The Boston Celtics will own the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. At this point, there is no catching the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, who have a five-game lead on the Celtics and have held first place for most of the season.

Besides keeping the team healthy with the playoffs around the corner, head coach Joe Mazzulla is using this time to test out different lineups and the overall versatility of his roster for the playoffs.

In the beginning of the new calendar year to start 2025, Mazzulla started tinkering with his double-big lineups. He played with just about every combination he could put together with Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, Luke Kornet, and Neemias Queta.

For the most part, the best result is pairing Porzingis and Horford with one of Kornet and Queta. Doing this, still allows Boston to stretch the floor with a shooting big-man while having the other remain in the paint as a rim protector.

The double-big lineup also will inevitably try to limit the success of opposing teams trying to stop Boston’s 3-point shooting approach. It has proven to work to Boston’s advantage as they make the right reads and attack the paint in these moments with a small-ball lineup against them.

Mazzulla postgame on Friday night:

“There’s always stuff we need to continue to get better at and push ourselves and hold ourselves to a standard. More importantly it’s just to make sure we get reps. We were able to do some stuff at shootaround. We tried to get [starters] higher in minutes and reps together and I thought they did a good job of that.”

Here’s other news and notes from the Celtics:

• Al Horford is a finalist for the NBA’s Teammate of the Year Award, which Joe Mazzulla believes he deserves: “It’s a no-brainer that he should get it… I mean, the respect that he has of the guys. What people don’t know is how innately competitive he is day in and day out. He just sets the tone, more with his actions than anything else. I really hope he gets it. He deserves it. He’s one of the best teammates and we’re lucky to have him.”
• Jrue Holiday is a finalist for the Sportsmanship Award. He won the award back in the 2020-21 season when he was with the Milwaukee Bucks and is well respected around the league. Holiday would be the first Celtics player to ever win the award.
• Jaylen Brown continues to talk about his knee injury. Yes, it’s a new type of injury for him to deal with, both physically and mentally. There isn’t a set amount of rest that would make him feel better for the playoffs. At this point, Brown is testing his pain tolerance and evaluating what he can do athletically on the court, which is becoming more limited with each game that passes: “As we continue to move forward, I’m hoping to feel better and better. But, there’s no guarantee that rest or anything like that will make this thing better so I’m kind of figuring it out and going through it and getting ready for the playoffs.”
• Payton Pritchard has the second-most 3-point makes in a single season in Celtics history. Derrick White broke the record last week, a record Isaiah Thomas made in 2016.

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Photo Credit: Brian Babineau, NBAE Getty Images