A lot of good things have been said about this Celtics team, especially about their top six players. The flexibility of their team, which has produced sixteen All-Stars, has been a key factor in their success.

That much money doesn’t just hit the pay cap. There have been problems in the locker room with the way the totem pole is stacked for a lot of other stacked rivals. So far, Boston has been able to avoid those problems.

Tatum said, “Just our unselfishness,” when asked what helped them beat the Knicks 116–102 on Saturday night (and maybe also what has helped them during their league-leading 45–12 season so far). Tatum told Lisa Salters of ESPN, “Every time we go down the court, we’re playing with the right goal, finding the right matchups that we’re trying to attack, and making good to great shots.”

Head coach Joe Mazzulla has made it clear that the Celtics can’t always beat other teams by having more ability or working harder. But what’s more, he wants them to be smarter than them.

“So many good players on our team.” We talk a lot about giving each other space. “At any time, we could have two or three advantages,” noted Tatum. There isn’t a totally wrong answer. Everyone should give each other room and remember that it’s a rhythm game. It’ll get back to you in the end.”

Tatum led the team to victory with 19 points, six rebounds, and six assists, which is a lot less than the 28-9-7 average he had during their best winning streak of the season. Even so, Mazzulla said it was a “beautiful display of basketball” that wouldn’t get much attention when talking about MVP. Tatum often had to deal with multiple defenders, so he was more aggressive when looking for his partners on the floor.

Jaylen Brown scored 30 points, beating Precious Achiuwa, a big man, with his speed and shooting, and dominating Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo, two smaller guards, with his strength and size. Brown had scored 21 points against the Bulls on Thursday.

“Our team is better organised this year.” We are considering the game. Each night, we try to be the best team. We’re patient. We see where there are gaps and play the game correctly. “I think this is one of the best years for us to do that since I’ve been a Celtic,” Brown said.

Many people say that the Knicks are a “try hard” team. Offensive rebounds are third in the league, and second-chance points are first. Those are good traits for a team that wants to host a first-round series in April, but the Celtics have bigger goals. Part of the reason they have the best offense in NBA history is that they get the second most open shots in the league and crush the ones that are protected with bigs over smalls or smalls around bigs.

When Al Horford came into the game, Bojan Bogdanovich, who had just been acquired, picked him up on defense to start the fourth quarter. Right away, Mazzulla saw that the 37-year-old was not a good fit for the role because he is not usually used as a main scorer or helper out of the post.

“He believed that was a way for us to attack.” “I usually run to the corner, so I chose to post up and attack that matchup,” Horford said after making 5 of 7 shots and getting 4 offensive rebounds.

The Celtics will now play three games at home against the 76ers, the Mavericks, and the Warriors over the next week. These are all playoff teams, so the Celtics will have to figure out how to attack and protect each team’s best players.