Jrue Holiday is looking forward to suiting up in the red, white and blue again.

The Celtics guard is expected to be one of the 12 members selected to play for Team USA in the Paris Olympics this summer, according to a report this week in The Athletic. It would be Holiday’s second selection for the Olympics after he helped the USA win the gold medal at the 2020 Olympics, and would continue a patriotic theme in the family.

His wife Lauren, of course, had a decorated soccer career in which she won two gold medals at the Olympics and won the World Cup in 2015 as a member of the United States national team.

“It’s always an honor to represent your country,” Holiday said Friday. “Obviously I do it for my country but I do it for my family. I think everyone here knows my wife, so she’s the rock star in our household. But I think to be able to represent my country and my family is something I’ve always been proud of.”

Holiday will turn 34 in June but he’s still playing at a high level in his first season with the Celtics, which is his 15th NBA season. According to The Athletic, Holiday will join the Team USA roster “barring unforeseen circumstances” and that USA Basketball officials have been pursuing Holiday for much of this NBA season.

“It’s believed Holiday has delivered his commitment to USAB officials in recent weeks,” the report said. “Team officials have valued Holiday’s two-way ability, point-of-attack defense and dynamic playmaking. Holiday was considered Team USA’s second-most important player behind Kevin Durant on the gold-medal-winning team in Tokyo in 2021.”

Holiday would join Team USA’s Olympics roster that is also expected to include NBA superstars like Celtics teammate Jayson Tatum, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid and Durant.

Fighting boredom

The Celtics entered Friday’s game against the Mavericks on a season-long nine-game winning streak, and while they have the Eastern Conference all but wrapped up, the next month and a half could seem a bit monotonous. But they’re doing their best to fight that.

“Not to get bored,” Holiday said of the Celtics’ mindset. “Obviously winning is great, but we don’t want to get bored with winning. I think being able to kind of give ourselves challenges and marks in the game that we want to get to, if it’s defensively, 25 points a quarter or offensively, running things that we worked on in shootaround that day. Those are things that we really lock into.”

The Celtics believe they still have room for growth, and Holiday thinks there’s in-game periods in which the team can tighten up more.

“I think there’s times where we have lulls in the game where, I don’t know if it’s – whatever it is, if it’s coming out at the end of the half where we’re not playing as well as we can, I think times like that, we really need to lock in because I think with my season last year and Boston’s season last year, really just being able to take advantage of those moments and those times,” Holiday said. “Being able to lock in, being consistent, and knowing that even when we have lulls, we can fight it.”

Another fan overseas

During the All-Star break, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla visited Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, who he admires and believes is the best soccer manager in the world. The Celtics have another supporter from a different top club in the Premier League.

Arsenal star Bukayo Saka, who visited Boston in May 2022 and attended Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals at TD Garden, appeared on the popular “Men in Blazers” podcast this week and he’s picking the Celtics to win the championship.

“Boston Celtics, come on, bring it home this year, please,” Saka said.

“They let me go to a game and sit courtside. I just loved the stadium, obviously my favorite player’s Jayson Tatum,” Saka continued. “Even all the other players as well, they’re so good and just to see them live, I watched them against the Miami Heat and they absolutely destroyed them that day.”

Free throws

Oshae Brissett was a late addition to the Celtics injury report on Friday and was listed as questionable due to personal reasons but was cleared to play. … Mavs star Luka Doncic, who was questionable because of an ankle sprain, was also cleared to play.