Of course, the status of Jayson Tatum is hovering over the team as he has returned to the practice court and should spend the next several days continuing his rehabilitation from a torn Achilles while his teammates get a much-needed respite.

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Jaylen Brown, who scored 24 points in 29 minutes, will be the lone Celtics representative at the All-Star Game — where he’ll certainly be asked multiple times about the surprising season and Boston’s chances of a deep playoff run.

But what has to be acknowledged before the focus shifts to the final 28 games is how the Celtics got there. It’s been a masterful coaching job by Mazzulla in pushing this collection of talented players, castoffs from other franchises, and unproven players into a legitimate playoff contender.

Even more impressive was the Celtics began the season 0-3 and looked as if they would be fortunate just to make a run for a play-in spot. Those expectations changed when the Celtics won 15 of their next 21 games behind the mastery of Brown and contributions from the likes of Payton Pritchard, Jordan Walsh, and the departed Anfernee Simons.

What the Celtics have done is establish an identity distinct from past teams. Boston is the harder-playing team on most nights. It takes care of the ball and has improved immensely on rebounding. There are still times when the Celtics can 3-point teams into submission, but they mostly win with defense and timely scoring.

Guard and team leader Jaylen Brown will be the Celtics’ lone representative at this weekend’s All-Star Game. Erin Clark/Globe Staff

“The regular season, the challenge is Day 1 you set a standard. It’s like, OK, this is the identity. This is what we want to become,” Mazzulla said. “How long does it take for us to get there? And when we’re there, how long does it take us to stay there? And when we don’t stay there, how quickly can we get it back, right?

“If you take a look up to this point, I think we have a clear understanding of who we are as a team from a tactical standpoint, from an identity standpoint, from a mindset standpoint. We’ve played more times than not, to the best version of ourselves.”

The Celtics lead the Knicks by just one-half game for the No. 2 seed, while the Cavaliers are charging fast behind new acquisition James Harden. Boston is going to have to be better in the final third of the season than in the first two-thirds because the competition will be more intense.

President of basketball operations Brad Stevens still has a few more days to fill two roster spots, and he could sign a player to a 10-day contract to buy more time for the buyout market. The Celtics could use another ball handler and scorer off the bench. They could use another wing. They could use anybody who can supplement their bench.

Regardless of who the Celtics add, Mazzulla appears comfortable and confident in their current personnel. They are just beginning to untap the potential of Vucevic in the offense. And he’ll spend the next several days learning the system, and should be far more comfortable as the games become more crucial.

The key for the Celtics is to not only maintain their high level of player but improve. They have to avoid 3-point skids. Derrick White needs to be more consistent.

The Celtics will need more consistently good play from guard Derrick White over the final third of the season. Erin Clark/Globe Staff

“The challenge is can we maintain that, but can we also take it to another level?” Mazzulla said. “There’s been games we’ve lost. There’s been games this year where teams have exposed what we need to work on and where we need to grow. So how do we take advantage of that?

“You know, I think that’s what the guy’s ability to come into the film session, you know, regardless of the result, and say, ‘OK, you know, whether we won this by 20 or lost by one, this team exposed something that we can work on, and we just got to get better.’ ”

The encouraging aspect is the players have soaked in Mazzulla’s adjustments and managed the personnel changes. The Celtics no longer have the star power of the past, so they needed to be more precise and cohesive — and they have been. They’ve established themselves as a contender, a team capable of beating any other in the NBA.

“I think we were trying to put together an identity and a team in adding new guys and young guys,” Mazzulla said. “I would hope we would have gotten up to this point. But I do think, you know, we got to what it looks like to play Celtics basketball this year at a good pace when we needed to, and kept it when we needed to.”

The Patriots lose Super Bowl LX to the Seahawks in a beatdown by the Bay. Boston Globe Sports Report is live from San Francisco to break everything down.

Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.