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BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics take the TD Garden floor for their game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night as the first-place team in the Eastern Conference for the first time in six years.

After their win Monday night moved them to within percentage points of the first-place Cleveland Cavaliers, the defending NBA champions lost (badly) at San Antonio to give the Celtics the conference lead for the first time since March 22, 2011.

"I want this to be a special season for our team," Avery Bradley said Tuesday. "We have a special group of guys, and I feel like we deserve it."

The Celtics have won the first four contests of a six-game homestand that concludes Friday night against the Orlando Magic. They have won 14 of their last 15 home games, and their 48 wins match last year's total, with eight games left.

They have a head-to-head meeting with the Cavaliers at TD Garden next Wednesday -- Cleveland holding a 2-1 lead in the season series.

Said coach Brad Stevens: "I still think we can play a lot better and that's where my focus is, and I think we have to keep it there."

And they also know the Cavaliers may well just be saving it for the games that "really" count.

"They've been struggling, for whatever reason, but it's still an NBA championship-caliber team," Boston's Isaiah Thomas said. "They're the defending champions, so it goes through them until someone eliminates them.

"I don't think you can be too worried about the things that they're struggling with right now. They're a really good team. Sooner or later they'll probably figure it out."

The hard-charging Bucks, fighting to get one of the final Eastern playoff spots, reeled off their 12th win in the last 15 games by cruising to a 118-108 victory over the Hornets in Charlotte on Tuesday night.

The win left Milwaukee tied with the Atlanta Hawks for the fifth spot in the conference, a game ahead of the Indiana Pacers and two up on the Miami Heat.

Tony Snell (career-high 26 points) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (20) combined for 46 points on 18-of-27 shooting, 5 of 9 from 3-point range, in Tuesday night's win. The Bucks were 14-for-30 from behind the arc.

"I thought the guys came in with the right mindset to be aggressive on the road, knowing what was at stake," coach Jason Kidd said. "It carried over from shoot-around and yesterday's practice. I thought the focus was at a very high level. I thought the ball movement got us going early, and I thought the guys shared the ball, and it was a team win."

As far as the race goes, Kidd said before the game, "This is the fun part of the year; they call it scoreboard watching. This is an exciting part of the year for different teams because they're jockeying for seedings and there's a lot of basketball to be played."

Thomas scored 37 points and dished out eight assists in the Celtics' 112-108 win at Milwaukee on Jan. 28, and the teams meet again in Boston to close the season on April 12.

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