In the wake of big moves around the Eastern Conference this week, Joe Mazzulla pushed back on the notion that teams are chasing the Celtics. He pointed out that the franchise hasn’t won a championship since 2008. That the C’s haven’t done anything yet to claim that they’re the standard.

That may be true, but the Celtics have only continued to show why they’re the overwhelming favorite to come out of the East come this spring.

While the Heat may be struggling and are in the midst of retooling after their acquisition of Terry Rozier this week, the Celtics sent another strong reminder to the rest of the Eastern Conference that the path to the NBA Finals will likely run through Boston. On Thursday night, against the team who ended their season last May, the Celtics showed how far they’ve come and how much better they are since that moment, as they went into Miami and walloped the Heat with an offensive demolition in a 143-110 victory.

Jayson Tatum scored 26 points to lead seven Celtics who finished in double figures as the C’s produced their best offensive performance of the season. Five players made at least three 3-pointers as the C’s shot an absurd 63.7 percent from the field and 55 percent from deep in the victory.

The Celtics – who swept their three-game road trip before returning home for a seven-game homestand starting Saturday against the Clippers – want to be peaking in April, May and June. But they’re firing on all cylinders right now with their new pieces fitting together seamlessly.

The C’s had a scare on Thursday as Kristaps Porzingis went down with a left ankle sprain midway through the third quarter after landing on Bam Adebayo’s foot while contesting one of his shots. The big man went straight to the locker room to tend to his injury and didn’t return, but did come back to the bench for the rest of the game and looked to be in high spirits. It’s unclear yet how long the injury will keep him out.