Should Celtics go all out for No. 1 seed in East?

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BOSTON – A year ago today, the Boston Celtics were on top of the Eastern Conference mountaintop -- barely -- with a half-game lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Today, Boston (53-23) is once again near the top of the standing. This time, however, the Toronto Raptors (55-21) own a two-game lead over the Celtics.

So the Celtics once again find themselves in a race to the finish if they are to go into the postseason, as they did a year ago, with the top overall record in the East.

But is it worth it?

Because the fact is, the No. 2 seed in recent years has fared noticeably better than the teams that had the best record in the East.

Look no further than last season, when the Celtics finished with the best record but had their season end in the conference finals at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who came in as the -- wait for it --– No. 2 seed.

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And this No. 2-getting-past-the-No. 1-seed narrative is by no means an exception to the rule.

In the last 10 seasons, the Eastern Conference regular-season champion has only gone on to the NBA Finals three times, though each team -- Cleveland in 2016, Miami in 2013 and Boston in 2008 -- ending up hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy as NBA champions.

Of the remaining seven regular-season champs in the East, four advanced to the conference finals but no further. Two got bounced in the second round. And the 2012 Chicago Bulls were eliminated in the first round in large part due to a Derrick Rose injury that sidelined him for most of the playoffs series won by Philadelphia in six games.

During that same period of time, the No. 2 seed in the East has advanced to the NBA Finals five times. Only once , however, has the No. 2 seed (Miami in 2012) won it all.

Of the five No. 2 seeds that didn’t get to the NBA Finals, three were knocked off in the conference finals and two were eliminated in the second round.

So with the Celtics having already locked up one of the top two seeds, history shows that, regardless of which spot they’re in, the chances of them getting out of the Eastern Conference are pretty good.

But make no mistake. They are very mindful of the fact that there’s a chance that they could move past Toronto.

“I think we can get it, for sure,” said Jaylen Brown. “It’s possible, but . . . the chips will fall where they may. The East is a little bit crazy and the West is even crazier so I don’t think anybody knows who will be playing who.”

Coach Brad Stevens has kept his focus all season on preparing for the moment, paying little attention to playing without key players but instead pouring all that he has into the healthy group in hand.

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“The most important thing is we’ve shown with the group we have, that we can play good basketball,” said Stevens, whose team is riding a six-game winning streak. “We need to focus on us, what gives us our best chance at winning. And then, get to the playoffs healthy with this group. At the end of the day, we don’t know a Kyrie [Irving] timeline [for returning to action]. Officially we don’t know a Marcus [Smart] timeline. We can’t necessarily think those guys are going to be back anytime soon.”

Said Brown: “I feel like we’re the number one team. The number one seed would be fitting, but we have to just come out and play basketball. There’s a lot of teams that think otherwise; Toronto is one of them. Milwaukee is probably one of them, too. So, we play those guys coming up soon. We have to go out and show it.”

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