The Celtics have had the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference clinched for weeks, and they secured home-court advantage throughout the playoffs with their 60th win on Wednesday. It would only be natural for them to take their foot off the gas over the final week of the regular season.

But the Celtics don’t want complacency to seep in with the playoffs so close. At shootaround on Friday, Joe Mazzulla’s message was one of not taking these final games for granted.

“Nothing else matters except taking advantage of every opportunity to win,” Mazzulla said.

For this final stretch, Mazzulla is playing a balancing game. He wants to give his regulars the appropriate rest with the playoffs in mind while still trying to win games. On Friday, he took it to the extreme. Already shorthanded without two starters, Mazzulla pulled his regulars with a commanding lead midway through the fourth quarter, and rode with his bench for a wild 101-100 victory over the Kings.

The Celtics – with a lineup featuring Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, Xavier Tillman, Oshae Brissett and Svi Mykhailiuk, with some minutes featuring rookie Jordan Walsh – blew a 19-point lead and survived. Tillman’s go-ahead bucket with seven seconds left was the difference as the Celtics escaped.

The Kings – who are in desperate need of wins as they try to get a top-six seed in the West and avoid the play-in – roared back in the fourth quarter, but Mazzulla never flinched. De’Aaron Fox made a pull-up jumper with 27 seconds left to put the Kings ahead by one and Mazzulla never called timeout. Hauser was blocked before a wild scramble ensued that ended with Tillman’s floater.

After a Kings timeout, the Celtics survived after Fox missed a jumper and two second-chance attempts missed.