BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics did not break out any champagne for a premature celebration Sunday night. In fact, head coach Brad Stevens and star guard Isaiah Thomas said nobody on the team even discussed pulling into a virtual tie with the Cleveland Cavaliers for first place in the Eastern Conference.

"Nobody talks about that," Thomas said after scoring 30 points to beat the Miami Heat, 112-108.

With eight games left in their regular season, the Celtics top the Eastern Conference with 48 wins, but still trail Cleveland by percentage points thanks to a one-game difference in the loss column. The two teams meet on April 5 in a game that could go a long way toward deciding the top seed. The Cavaliers still have three sets of back-to-backs left and could rest their top players a bit down the stretch.

"I mean, it's nice (to be in a virtual tie)," Thomas said. "It's just a tie though. So it's not that cool. Hopefully we can secure that spot and be No. 1 but we just have to control what we can control and take it game by game. We can't really worry about what Cleveland's doing and what other teams are doing if we control our own destiny at this point."

"We can always get better," added Thomas. "There's areas we can get better at but for the most part we're playing really well right now on both sides of the floor. There's still stretches throughout the game where we don't play as well. And we need to eliminate those for the most part. But we're playing at a high level right now. We just have to continue that until the playoffs start."