Last season the Celtics’ playoff fate was not decided until the final day of the regular season, and even then, it took a while to find clarity.

Boston finished 48-34, in a four-way tie for third place with the Hornets, Hawks, and Heat. The Celtics landed on the wrong end of the tiebreaker. As the No. 5 seed, they were left without home-court advantage, and they were left with a bad matchup against the Hawks, who won the series in six games after Avery Bradley was injured in Game 1.

This season is nearly one-third complete and there are indications that the Eastern Conference could be congested again.

Entering Saturday, the Celtics and Knicks were tied for third place at 14-12, and the 10th-place Pacers were just 1½ games behind. So the swings can come suddenly for the eight teams in this mishmash.

“It’s been that way for the last couple of years,’’ Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “You know, I think it boils down to — we always talk about maintaining an even keel, but you have got to control what you can control, and that’s playing as consistent as possible.’’

Hornets coach Steve Clifford said he and Stevens talked about the crowded conference before Boston’s 96-88 win over Charlotte on Friday night. Even though a significant portion of the season has passed, Clifford insists it’s too early to read too deeply into positioning.

“I hesitate to even look at standings at this stage of the game, because the schedule is such a big part of it,’’ Clifford said. “Some teams played a lot more games on the road; other teams have been out West already, and we haven’t. I think until you play 40-45 games — obviously you don’t want to lose contact with everybody — but you just have to worry about your team and building a team game that’s balanced.’’

While various schedules are certainly imbalanced at this point, head-to-head matchups involving teams likely to be in this logjam in April can have obvious importance, even in December.

“Whenever you look back on last season, it came down to games like this that we dropped,’’ Celtics forward Jae Crowder said after Friday’s win. “Try to take care of business in games like this, especially in our house, and in the playoff race in the East.’’

Attack mode

Al Horford had a mesmerizing stat line in the Celtics’ win over the Hornets, tallying 18 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 blocks, and 2 steals. Horford was pleased with his emphasis on attacking on offense and scoring in the post.

“A lot of times this year I’ve been playing the perimeter a little more, but I know I have the ability to do both,’’ he said. “[Against Charlotte] I tried to make more of an effort to catch it on the block and either score or get fouled.’’

According to basketball-reference.com, this season 33.7 percent of Horford’s field goal attempts have been 3-pointers, far above his career high of 24.4 percent, set last season. Just 24.2 percent of his attempts have come from within 3 feet of the basket, the second-lowest mark of his 10-year career.

But against Charlotte, seven of Horford’s 11 attempts came from the interior, and for the first time this season, he did not take a 3-pointer.

Miles to go

The Celtics have played just 11 home games, the lowest number in the Eastern Conference and tied with the Kings and Spurs for the fewest in the NBA.

And the Celtics will not be catching up to the others any time soon. On Sunday night, they open a three-game trip by facing the Heat. They will then visit the Grizzlies and Pacers before returning home. By that time, they will have played 18 road games.

“It’s been very different,’’ Horford said. “We’re almost there, right? This is the last really long trip of the month, so it’s been different. It’s hard, but I felt like the month has gone by quick.’’

The Celtics played eight road games in November and they will play a season-high 10 this month, finishing with games in New York and Cleveland. Of course, in the end, everyone will be equal. The Celtics have 10 games at TD Garden next month.

Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach.