Celtics improve to 12-0 at TD Garden to match team's best start at home since 2008

BOSTON -- The Celtics are not messing around at TD Garden this season. With Thursday night's 116-107 win over the Cavaliers, the C's improved to 12-0 on their home floor to start the season.

This marks the fourth time in franchise history that the Celtics have started their home slate with a dozen straight wins, matching the start of the 2007-08 Boston Celtics. And we all remember how that season ended for Boston.

We won't jump to any conclusions just yet, but these current Celtics have been playing at a different level on the TD Garden floor. They aren't just beating teams but doing so with relative ease, with an average point differential of plus-15.3 in Boston -- the best home point differential in the NBA.

Of their 12 home wins, the Celtics have won seven of them by double digits. That includes four by at least 15 points, three of which had a margin of victory greater than 23 points. Boston's biggest win of the season came at TD Garden, when they blew out the Pacers by 51 points. 

Thursday night was a little closer, but it was never really in doubt. Though the Cavaliers trimmed an 11-point halftime deficit to just four points by the end of the third quarter, the Celtics pulled away thanks to some timely buckets and smothering defense over the final 12 minutes.

All five Celtics starters finished in double figures against the Cavaliers, with Jayson Tatum leading the way with 27 points and 11 rebounds for his 10th double-double of the season. Jaylen Brown, who was questionable heading into the game with a sprained ankle, had 22 points to go with a team-high five assists.

Brown said after the win that he didn't believe the team had their usual energy and that Cleveland should have never been able to make it a game in the second half. The third quarter has been an issue this season, and the C's were outscored 33-25 in that frame on Thursday night.

But Brown says they all understand that teams are going to give them their best when opponents come into TD Garden. While the C's would have played down to some opponents in past years, Brown isn't going to allow that to happen this year.

"I've emphasized to not skip any steps this year. Success is earned every single day, so that means every shootaround, every film session, and every time we're together, we need to be aware of what's going on and aware of the mission in total," he said. "I think that our mindset has been a lot better in that regard this season than last just because sometimes a season can get kind of mundane. Guys start to kind of go through the motions, things kind of get monotonous. We want to make sure we stay locked in as much as we possibly can, and I think our home record is an example of us trying to do a better job."

The Celtics were 32-9 at home during the regular season last year, but then let home games slip away in the playoffs, making for a much bumpier road as they tried to return to the NBA Finals. They dropped a potential clincher in the opening round against the Hawks to needlessly prolong that series, and then fell in Game 1 against the Sixers despite Joel Embiid missing the game. They lost both games to open the Eastern Conference Finals to the Miami Heat, and then fell in Game 7 after clawing back from a 3-0 series hole.

The Celtics were 5-6 at home last postseason, and 6-6 at TD Garden during the 2021-22 playoffs. With that in mind, the Celtics are determined to make the Garden a house of horrors for visiting teams throughout this season.

"In the last year or two, we haven't been as great as we want to be at home, especially in the playoffs. We've lost some tough games at home," Tatum said Thursday night. "So just trying to get back to my first couple years when we were just electric at home. And we have been so far."

That's the exact message you want to hear coming from the two best players on the team. 

This Celtics squad still has a ways to go before matching the franchise's best-ever home start, which was set in 1957-58 when Bill Russell's Celtics started the season 18-0 at the Boston Garden. And they have an extremely tough test with the Orlando Magic in town Friday night for the second leg of a back-to-back. It's the first of two straight meetings with the Magic in Boston, as the Celtics will look to avenge a 113-96 road defeat in Orlando last month. 

But with a bigger emphasis on winning on their home court and in front of their home fans, don't expect the Celtics to take their foot off the gas at TD Garden.