The Celtics have played themselves into a luxurious position with 14 games left in the season. While their counterparts in the Eastern Conference are slugging it out in a quest of better playoff positioning, the Celtics just shrunk their magic number to clinch the top seed to five. They are 10 games up on the Milwaukee Bucks. And regardless of what happens when the two teams meet Wednesday, it will have zero impact on the race for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. With the Celtics needing a few more wins to take the East, coach Joe Mazzulla and his staff are in experimentation and rest mode. Advertisement Mazzulla doesn’t like to call it experimentation, but he has tossed several unusual lineups on the floor in the past few weeks. The Celtics want to be prepared for anything when the postseason comes. They want all their players accustomed to playing with each other. They are preparing for an onslaught of bizarre strategies, murky games and creative game plans from opposing coaches when the playoffs begin, and they don’t want to be exposed. Monday’s game against the shorthanded and porous Detroit Pistons served many purposes for the Celtics. It was a chance to get Kristaps Porzingis some significant minutes after missing five games with a strained hamstring. It was an opportunity for Mazzulla to use different lineups and also offer minutes to little-used players. These are the final weeks of the regular season. And unlike past years when the Celtics were in the midst of a playoff race, they put their work in early in the season and have created such a cushion that they have time for Derrick White to chase triple doubles, or Jaylen Brown to emerge as the primary scorer with Jayson Tatum getting a night off. The result was a 119-94 win, as the Celtics embark on a softer schedule that should allow for even more experimentation. Tatum, Jrue Holiday and Al Horford sat out with minor injuries, while Sam Hauser was scratched after spraining his ankle Sunday in Washington. Advertisement But the Celtics always seem to have enough this season regardless of who sits out games. Tatum sat on the end of the bench for the first clad in a sweat suit, munching on popcorn. Holiday walked over to greet former Celtic Leon Powe near the home bench, and then gave fist bumps to fans sitting courtside. Brown, who sat out Sunday’s win at
Washington, returned to score 31 points in 30-plus minutes. Brown is now averaging 29.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists, just 1.5 turnovers and 54.1 percent
shooting since the All-Star Break. And for the past nine days, Brown has been observing Ramadan, a Muslim-based practice that requires fasting from dawn until dusk for the ninth month of the Muslim calendar. He will continue the custom until April 9. Motivation could become an issue in this rather mundane part of the season. The Celtics lead the NBA with an 11.6 point differential, which would be the fourth-highest in NBA history if they finished the regular season with that mark. The three teams ahead of the Celtics all won NBA championships. And that’s motivation in itself. The Celtics will use these final 14 games as constructively as possible, with Mazzulla blending lineups, resting players but also adhering to the game plan and philosophy. The Celtics haven’t clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference since 2016-17, when Brown was a rookie and Tatum was a skinny freshman at Duke. Advertisement “They’re self-motivated,” Mazzulla said when asked if motivation would be an issue in the final month. “I think if you want to get to the level you want to get to, there’s time for short-term motivational pockets. But the greatest strength of this team is the locker room and the character and the way that they play. “We’ve had very few of those (lulls) this year and, no, I don’t have to do anything to motivate them. They do it on their own.” Motivation Monday for White was notching his first NBA triple double — 22 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists — although he admitted he felt uncomfortable chasing that final assist in the fourth quarter. Motivation for rookie Jordan Walsh was to flourish in the small slice of playing time he received as he returned from G-League Maine. He has quickly become a fan favorite at TD Garden, perhaps because he’s barely 20 years old, or because he has gained so much support from teammates and the organization because of his gregarious personality. After the crowd broke into The Wave, it roared when Walsh took a pass from Jaden Springer and soared for a dunk in the final two minutes. The Celtics have learned from their past lapses and are taking lesser opponents with the same seriousness and passion as the elite teams. They battered the Wizards and Pistons the past two nights by a combined 51 points, even with shorthanded lineups. Advertisement Mazzulla’s goal is for his team to take a positive and useful experience out of every game, even the ones outsiders may deem meaningless. The Celtics got plenty of value from Monday’s win, and they’ll devise more means of motivation in the next month, because they are far from their ultimate goal. Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com . Follow him @GwashburnGlobe .