Shaking my notebook and seeing what falls out as the Celtics prepare to resume their chase for the NBA Cup, which some people care about and some do not …

▪ The Celtics rolled to a 126-94 win over the Clippers Monday that included a massive 51-point second quarter. Afterward, forward Jaylen Brown stressed that the Celtics should emphasize their approach in that game.

“I want to continue to play fast,” Brown said. “That’s what I’m going to keep urging [Joe Mazzulla] and urging our team to do. But just keep making plays, playing the right way, is just going to be important.”

The Celtics are averaging 97.72 possessions per game, ranking 25th in the NBA. Their pace is down slightly from last season, when they ranked 19th at 97.98. Mazzulla said he wants the Celtics to play fast, too, but not always in the conventional sense of just sprinting for dunks and layups.

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“The most important thing is getting to our spacing,” Mazzulla said. “[Brown] is right. When we play fast, that’s when we’re at our best. But it’s not playing fast just running up and down. It’s playing fast, getting to your spacing fast, seeing the advantage fast, seeing the coverage fast, getting to your action as fast as you can.

“So, pace is an overused term. We want to do that, but we also want to get to what we want to get to as fast as we can.”

Mazzulla wants the team to start its actions on offense with about 18 seconds left on the shot clock.

“Can we get quicker things when we get to our spacing? Yes,” Mazzulla said. “Can we see advantages with that? Yeah.”

▪ The Celtics face the Bulls in their NBA Cup group-play finale Friday. If the Hawks defeat the Cavaliers earlier in the day, Atlanta will win the group and the Celtics’ only way to advance to the quarterfinals would be by securing the conference’s wild card via point differential. That could set the stage for a repeat of last season’s group-play game between these teams that featured an unusual fourth quarter.

The Celtics needed to defeat Chicago by at least 23 points to win a three-team tiebreaker. So their starters played deep into the fourth quarter despite being ahead by 30 points, and Bulls coach Billy Donovan became agitated when the Celtics began to intentionally foul center Andre Drummond, a poor free throw shooter, with the win secured.

Drummond went 1 for 6 from the line in the period and the Celtics advanced to the quarterfinals, where they lost to the Pacers.

“It’s different from any other game, and that’s what the league kind of wants,” Celtics guard Derrick White said Wednesday. “It was kind of just weird. It’s something you never really do before, never really thought about.”

Drummond plays for the 76ers now, of course, but the Bulls could avoid a similar scenario by simply not falling behind by 30 points.

▪ Don’t look now, but the Celtics are on pace for 68 wins. If they win 68, they would tie the 1967 76ers for fifth-most in NBA history.

▪ There should be news on the sale of the Celtics within the next few weeks. Lead owner Wyc Grousbeck isn’t saying much publicly, but he continues to make it clear that he would like to remain in control through the 2028 season, as initially laid out when the sale was announced in July.

When Grousbeck was asked after the team’s White House visit last Thursday about the possibility that it would be his last time in this spot as owner, he reiterated his hopes.

“The plan is that I will stay for three more years,” Grousbeck said. “That’s what’s laid out. We’ll go from there.”

▪ The Celtics and Thunder are tied for the NBA lead in net rating at plus-10.7. Their defensive rating has climbed to 110.2, tied for seventh. So it’s hard to nitpick. But some opponents have exposed some vulnerabilities closer to the rim.

The Celtics are surrendering 53.2 points in the paint, ranking 26th in the NBA. Also, the restricted-area defense ranks 18th, with opponents shooting 67.4 percent. Mazzulla pointed out that the Celtics cannot take everything away. For example, opponents are attempting just 34.5 3-pointers per game against Boston, third-fewest in the NBA, and connecting on just 34 percent, tied for fourth-lowest.

Mazzulla said that in the Clippers game, Los Angeles played through big man Ivica Zubac quite a bit and he registered 23 points and 10 rebounds, but that also meant less time with James Harden handling the ball, and the Celtics won by 32 points.

Regardless, Mazzulla acknowledged, there is room for improvement in the paint.

“Ones that you have to do a better job of, whether it’s your body position on a back cut, your individual defense, some of the offensive rebound ones, those are the ones we can control that we’ve got to fight to not give up,” Mazzulla said.

Of course, the return of Kristaps Porzingis will give the interior defense a jolt. The Celtics blocked a season-high 11 shots against the Clippers, and Mazzulla pointed out that they now have more options for double-big lineups.