Kristaps Porzingis explains Celtics focus on playoff margins

Celtics

“We have a lot of tricks we could pull out of our sleeves when we need to, but we want to build this run on a strong foundation.”

Margins. It’s the magic word thrown around in just about every Celtics press conference this postseason. Margins for the game overall, and for individual players — Joe Mazzulla stressed keeping Jalen Brunson’s margins down ahead of its series against the Knicks.

But why is that word, that goal, so important? Beyond coach speak, Kristaps Porzingis provided some clarity on why Boston is focused on the margins so much on this playoff run.

“We have all the talent, we have a lot of tricks we could pull out of our sleeves when we need to. But we want to build this run on a strong foundation,” Porzingis told reporters. “We don’t want it to be ‘oh, we pulled this one out somehow some way based off [Jayson Tatum] or [Jaylen Brown’s} talent and they made some crazy plays and we just close our eyes and hope it happens again.

“We want to have a good base as a team and do all the foundational things correctly. And then have that in our back pocket if we need it.”

In their last series against the Magic, the Celtics were strong in the margins. They outscored the Magic 532-468, winning their four games by an average of 13 points and dropping their only loss of the series by two.

They won on the margins in rebounds, field goal percentage and 3-point percentage, too. Rebounds favored Boston 211-199, though it was out-rebounded in two of the five contests. The Celtics shot 47 percent from the field and 38.4 percent from 3-point range over the series, compared to 42.3 percent and 26.8 percent for the Magic, respectively.

So, in an albeit very small sample size, Boston’s focus on the margins is posting results. But margins don’t always secure wins outright, and as Porzingis said, it’s good to have two superstars in the Celtics’ back pocket ready to take over if the game requires such.

Tatum and Brown have each produced a number of clutch playoff performances over their careers. Tatum has scored 50 or more points twice in the postseason, and Brown is fresh off a postseason run that saw him win NBA Finals MVP. In games where the margins battle doesn’t go Boston’s way, Tatum and Brown are two of the best safety valves it could ask for.

The Celtics’ second-round series with the Knicks kicks off on Monday night at TD Garden.