Yahoo Sports Senior NBA Reporters Dan Devine and Jake Fischer discuss their overall feelings on the Boston Celtics as they battle with the Milwaukee Bucks for the top seed in the Eastern Conference, and Jake tells you why he thinks the Celtics are operating with a different mindset than any team in the NBA.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

JAKE FISCHER: No matter what happens between now and the playoffs, no matter if there's a couple of struggles here and there, no matter if they lose a tough game to New York like they did on Monday night or what. Basically until we get to the playoffs, I don't care what happens with Boston because of this. Because in that locker room I talked to Al Horford, I talked to Grant Williams, I was in Jayson Tatum's press conference, I talked to Payton Pritchard who's like outside the rotation right now but he's still locked in. Blake Griffin's locked in.

This team's locked in. And there's a difference between teams that are saying the right things, that are a good team, that are winning games. The mojo's flowing. Good vibes all around. And teams that are completely and abjectly focused on one thing and one thing only and that's winning a championship.

And to the point where like losing a game to the Knicks stinks, but it's a blip on the radar in terms of what their overall goal is. That's not to say that I think the Celtics are like kind of feeling themselves a little bit and they're not being too concerned about little regular season games here and there. I think that just goes to show-- I was just struck by, you're right what you see, right? And I was really struck by how this team seems to be just unbothered by anything outside of what they can control.

And that's a pretty dangerous alchemy I think for a team that just made the finals a year ago. And seems like they have a bit of an edge about the fact that they lost it. That they were up 2-1 on one of the greatest dynasties that this league has ever seen in the Golden State Warriors. And they squandered that opportunity where they think they clearly got better than a year ago by adding Malcolm Brogdon.

They're certainly trying to get their health all aligned moving forward into the playoffs. Robert Williams will be a massive factor moving forward. And I think to go to their trade deadline they didn't make any massive moves, but they went and got little insurance pieces. They went and got Mike Muscala to be just another big man to have on the bench. And that, to me, is another indicator of how confident this team is in themselves. That they didn't feel like it was worth going out and making a massive play for Jakob [? Poeltl. ?]

They just wanted to get a little bit of an insurance policy on their bench because that's all they're thinking here. They're thinking championship, championship, championship. There's nothing else in our site line. And we don't want to do too much to blow up what we're building here. And I just I was so impressed by how in lockstep and moving in one direction this team seems to be.