It’s becoming a theme for the 2025-26 Boston Celtics.

For the third consecutive preseason contest, Boston has held a lead of 20+ over its opponent:

In Preseason Game 1, the Celtics held big leads throughout before a decisive 121-103 win in Memphis.

In Preseason Game 2, it was a 107-105 loss in Toronto after blowing a 27-point second half lead.

In Preseason Game 3, it was a wire-to-wire domination over last year’s No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, beating the Cavaliers 138-107 in their first preseason game at TD Garden this exhibition season.

I get it, it’s preseason.

But what Boston continues to show game in and game out during these preseason games is a personality completely emblematic of their head coach in Joe Mazzulla, with rotational players treating every possession like it’s game seven of the finals regardless of what the calendar reads at the moment.

Boston has played a mix of their “guys” through the first three games. And in fairness, their competition has not. But that doesn’t mean we should be discounting all the good tape Boston has been putting out there over the past few days.

Guys like Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard have all done it on basketball’s biggest stage. They’re bonafides in this league are well-established. Just because Mazzulla is throwing them out there, it doesn’t mean these guys need to be playing this hard in games that, quite honestly, don’t matter.

But it matters to them. That’s the culture Mazzulla has fostered. They have pride every time they take the court, and that’s been evident over the last three games.

I give these guys a ton of credit for utilizing the preseason to work through some lineup stuff as they continue developing a new rotation minus Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Luke Kornet. Most teams, regardless of their roster turnover, aren’t taking advantage of this time.

Mini prediction - I bet Boston comes out of the gate hotter than most people expect, and will be among the top teams in the Eastern Conference after the first month of the season. I think they’ll fade back into the middle of the pack as the season rolls along, but from the jump they’ll catch teams by surprise.

Outside of the names everyone already knows is a guy named Josh Minott, who the Celtics signed this summer to a two-year deal worth $5 million.

Minott (pronounced MEYE-NOT) has been a spark for Boston this entire preseason.

From Derrick White talking about the forward being a pest on defense during training camp to highlight plays during preseason action, Celtics Twitter is quickly rallying around the 6-foot-8 former Timberwolf.

And on Sunday night in Boston, he kept the hype train rolling with 16 points on 5 of 9 shooting, going 2 for 5 from three while grabbing 6 rebounds and a steal. He was 4 for 5 from the line, and had multiple dunks that had the building sounding like a regular season game against a fully loaded Cavs team.

With his size and athleticism, I see no reason why this guy can’t be a huge part of the rotation in 2025-26. He looks like a guy that’s going to be able to stretch the floor, he can make plays at the rim, and he appears to be a guy that can switch on almost every position on the floor (minus true centers, probably).

I know Minnesota has been good the last few years, but I’m amazed this guy has been buried on their bench at only 5.0 minutes a game over his first three seasons.

It appears team president Brad Stevens may have found another diamond in the ruff with Minott.

Can he start at the power forward spot?

I would say at the moment, veteran big man Chris Boucher has won that role, if, of course, Boston intends on going with a traditional center in their starting five with Neemias Queta as that guy.

If Boston decides to go small to fit this new faster-paced version of the Mazzulla offense, there’s all sorts of combinations that remain possible. Would that give Sam Hauser a path towards being a regular starter? Could Boucher and Minott be fighting for a starting role as the team’s non-traditional big in the middle? Is there some sort of combination that includes two of these three, or all three?

The only spots in the starting five I feel comfortable putting in sharpie at the moment are Brown, White and Pritchard. And if I’m being honest, Brown and White really the only true locks right now, with TV color analyst Brian Scalabrine hinting quite a bit on Sunday’s broadcast at the idea of White playing point guard for long stretches in 2025-26.

Fascinated to see how the rotation eventually rounds into form for Boston.

They close out their preseason on Wednesday night, with the Raptors coming to town looking for their fourth preseason win in a row.

Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.