Celtics forward Jayson Tatum celebrates during Boston’s 125-85 win over the Warriors on Monday night in San Francisco. Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — The Celtics have not looked like contenders for most of the last month. That changed Monday against the Warriors, when Jayson Tatum led a balanced scoring attack and the defending champs rolled to a 125-85 win over the Golden State Warriors.

The victory continued of pattern alternating wins and loses. Boston is 9-8 over its last 17 games and 11-9 since Dec. 7, allowing Cleveland to take a 6 1/2 game lead in the Eastern Conference.

Boston look like an energized group on Monday. Tatum said is important to the Celtics to stay in the moment to get through the regular-season grind.

“I think understanding just I’ve been through it before,” Tatum said. “And I’ve been through spurts of the season where I was trying to rush to get to the end and skip steps. And it resulted in us losing in the conference finals, whereas last year we didn’t get bored, we didn’t skip steps. We just tried to get a little bit better every day and we know the result of that. So keeping that in perspective and just understanding it’s hard.

“It’s hard to win night-in and night-out in the league. I don’t think it’s a question of, like, are we bored or not. It’s tough. We get everybody’s best shot. We put a lot of work in and sometimes we don’t play as well as we would like to. And that can be frustrating sometimes. But I wouldn’t say we’re bored or anything.”

Instead Tatum and the Celtics are trying to focus on some of the little things to stay fresh. Multiple players, including Tatum, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, have been playing since the Paris Olympics so finding that level of engagement is crucial.

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“Just try to find some motivation,” Tatum said. “Try to keep it fun. It’s a long season, it’s 82 games. You don’t want to skip steps, but you know what’s most important is the playoffs and things like that. But how do you find joy and keep things fun and entertaining throughout the course of the season. That’s the cool part about it and I think that’s very important as well.”

The Celtics finish their road trip with games against the Clippers, Lakers and Mavericks . The challenge is to start stringing together wins. Boston has been better on the road this season, winning 15 of 20 games. Amid the ups and downs in the win-loss column, coach Joe Mazzulla likes the progress he’s seen since a dismal 110-97 loss to the Raptors in Toronto on Jan. 15.

“I’ve liked a lot of the things we’ve been doing on both sides of the ball,” Mazzulla said. “You’ve just got to fight for process vs results as far as that, and I think the consistency of that could lead to further success. So we saw that for the most part today as well.”

JAYLEN BROWN IS often asked to guard the opposing team’s best player, but Stephen Curry presents a different challenge. The Warriors star sprints around the court and is ready to bomb away from 3-point range at a moment’s notice.

With the Celtics trying to bounce back from an ugly overtime loss to the Hawks on Saturday, Brown asked for the opportunity to guard Curry.

“Tonight was a challenge just from a travel standpoint, coming off a tough overtime loss,” Brown said. “Everybody was a little beaten up. Joe (Mazzulla) talked to me about it. Just trying to take that challenge, chasing a guy around. It’s not easy. But try to do what it takes for us to get a win.”

Curry finished with 18 points, three rebounds and four assists. He was 6 for 16 from the field and 4 for 12 from 3-point range. He only played 27 minutes and sat out the fourth quarter.

“I’m guarding him, so chasing him around,” Brown said. “But on the defensive end, making him pay as well. Anytime he got in transition or he was cross matched and he was on me, just trying to make him pay, make him work, and just making the right play. Drawing the defense in, kicking it out, that led to some open shots and just being a playmaker.”

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