Celtics playing the numbers game

The Celtics have been tested by the best in the league and have come out on top many more times than not. There isn’t anything left to prove in the regular season, yet there are still 11 games remaining on the schedule. So what is left to play for? Just the numbers.

First of all, there is the matter of playoff seeding. Right now, the Celtics are No. 1 overall. If they can hold onto that spot, they’ll have homecourt advantage locked up through the entire playoffs. The closest competition for that honor is the Pistons, but the Celtics entered Thursday night’s action with a six-game advantage over Detroit and also won the season series. So Boston’s magic number entering last night was five, meaning any combination of Celtics wins and Pistons losses equaling five would lock up the top spot for the Celtics.

Looking around the league, it will be interesting to see who the Celtics will match up with in the first round. Right now, the teams with the best shot at the eighth seed are the Hawks, Nets, Pacers and Bulls. All have sub-.500 records thus far.

Next, the Celtics have some interesting records they could set. Last year’s team only managed 24 wins, and this one has 56. With one more win, the C’s will surpass the franchise-record, 32-win turnaround set by the team in Larry Legend’s rookie season. With five more wins, they’ll break the NBA record held by the Spurs with their 36-win turnaround in Tim Duncan’s rookie year.

Of course, that is all well and good, but as the Mavericks proved last year (with 67 regular-season victories and a first-round playoff exit), all that matters is the postseason. So the Celtics need to walk a fine line between giving the Big Three their rest and keeping the team in a winning rhythm down the stretch. So far, Kevin Garnett is averaging 33.8 minutes per game, the fewest of his career aside from his rookie season. Likewise, both Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are averaging fewer minutes per game than their career averages.

Doc Rivers should have plenty of leash to experiment with giving veterans rest while providing new players like Sam Cassell and P.J. Brown a chance to adapt to their new teammates. The combined winning percentage of the teams set to play the Celtics from Sunday through the end of the regular season is .369. Ideally, the Celtics would like to build some 20-point, second-half leads and break out Gino early and often.

Still, all Celtics fans know that there’s just one number that really matters: 17.

Jeff Clark is the founder and lead writer of celticsblog.com.