Miami Heat turmoil opens door for Boston Celtics to make aggressive push for No. 1 seed in Eastern Conference | Brian Robb

BOSTON — On the heels of the Celtics’ fifth straight win and 21st overall in their last 24 games, the only sign of discord in Boston’s locker room was of the comical variety. Whether it was Deuce Tatum trying to grab Marcus Smart during an inbounds play or Jaylen Brown accusing Jayson Tatum of stealing his signature blowing kisses to the crowd celebration, the nightly vibes for this group have been jovial since the middle of January.

“We feel great, man,” Brown said after scoring a team-high 26 points. “We feel great. I keep saying, we just taking it one day at a time. It’s about us. So we just gotta keep doing what we do well and keeping that chip on our shoulder, and I think we’ll be fine.”

That mentality has helped Boston rise up from the 11th overall seed in the Eastern Conference in early January all the way to a tie for the No. 2 seed with Milwaukee and Philadelphia.

First, the team’s goal was simply to avoid the play-in tournament. Then, it was secure homecourt advantage. Now? Even with just eight games remaining, shooting for the top spot in the Eastern Conference suddenly seems within reach despite the heavy competition.

“That’s crazy, right?” Brown said of the opportunity. “I feel like all of this was prime, very, very prime for us. We just had to put full stretches together and stuff like that. I knew the energy was about to shift, so I’m happy that we’re here now. It’s crazy to know we’re a game and a half—as many games as we blew in the first half of the season. It would’ve been nice to have won some of those games because maybe we would be in first right now, but everything happens for a reason. So we take it one game at a time. We see where we’re at come playoff time.”

Suddenly challenging the Heat for that No. 1 spot does not seem to be a pipe dream even with limited time remaining on the regular season calendar. Wednesday night marked Miami’s second straight ugly loss, at home against a Warriors team playing without all of its stars. More importantly though, there are signs of cracks in Miami’s ranks after a heated confrontation involving Udonis Haslem, Erik Spoelstra and All-Star Jimmy Butler during a third quarter timeout.

“It was pretty clear. We have a competitive, gnarly group and we were getting our asses kicked for two straight games,” Spoelstra said of the conflict. “We’re not playing to the level that we wanted to play. Virtually every single person in that huddle was pretty animated about our disappointment in how we were playing.”

Sideline confrontations happen from time-to-time in the NBA but there are few that rise to this level and involve such prominent personnel on a team. Spoelstra did his best to downplay the situation after the game despite delaying his own press conference after the loss.

“You can use moments during a season to catapult you,” Spoelstra said. “You can galvanize together over frustration and disappointment. Teams can also go the other way. I don’t see that with our group.”

Spoelstra can try to minimize the impact of such an ugly exchange but there’s no question that there is something below the surface there that could make a lasting impact. The Celtics have seen firsthand that these types of confrontations don’t signal promising signs about a team’s outlook, particularly in the short term. Whether it was Brown and Marcus Morris having a pushing match on the bench during the 2018-19 season in Miami or the team’s huge shooting match in the locker room after a loss to the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2020 Playoff bubble, those moments were reflective of teams that weren’t fully together at the time.

The Celtics had their tough moment already this year, at least publicly when Marcus Smart called out Brown and Tatum’s lack of passing. However, it’s evident that trio and the team have worked through those issues amid a 21-3 stretch that has them heaping praise upon each other.

“Marcus has been great,” Brown said. “Marcus is running the show. We’re trusting him to be the point person and he’s made it easier for everybody. So I tip my hat off to Marcus. Marcus has done a great job. We believe in him. We empower him. What he does on both sides of the ball, he’s been great for us and he’s a big reason on why the team has really turned it around. So give credit where credit is due; Marcus has been a huge anchor on offense and defense for us that has led to the results that we see now.”

With Miami showing cracks in their foundation, the Celtics have an opportunity now to ride this wave and secure a huge advantage in the East playoffs against a loaded field. Boston still has one head-to-head meeting with Miami at the Garden next Wednesday night. Meanwhile, the Heat have plenty of possible losses on their own schedule in the next two weeks, including matchups against the Nets at full strength as well as the Bulls and Raptors on the road. If Boston can take care of business, the No. 1 seed is there for the taking.

It won’t be easy with Boston still having the fourth toughest schedule remaining in the NBA, but with the team humiliating opponents on a nightly basis, that may not be much of a deterrent towards carrying that momentum into the postseason. The Celtics have figured out their identity, rotation and will have plenty of time to rest with at least five days off between the end of the regular season and first round openers. That along with Miami’s suddenly vulnerable state should give Ime Udoka incentive to keep his foot on the gas down the stretch and push this team towards the top prize in the East.