For the last two seasons, Jayson Tatum was an All-Star starter only because he was named the injury replacement for Kevin Durant. A year later, the Celtics star didn’t need any such qualification.

Tatum was named an All-Star starter on his own merit this time around, as he was announced as one of the five Eastern Conference starters for the 2023 NBA All-Star Game on Thursday night during a special on TNT. The game will take place Feb. 19 in Salt Lake City.

“I think he’s deserving, more than deserving,” Celtics interim head coach Joe Mazzula said of Tatum before Thursday’s game against the Knicks. “I think for me, personally, everybody talks about his basketball skills. People don’t talk about how good of a person he is, and he’s a great person. That means a lot to me and I want people to know that about him. We’re able to do what we do as a team because he’s one of the cornerstones, because of who he is.”

This will be Tatum’s fourth career All-Star appearance. He’ll join Brooklyn’s Durant, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetekounmpo, Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell and Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving as the starters from the East. In the West, Los Angeles’ LeBron James, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, New Orleans’ Zion Williamson, Dallas’ Luke Doncic and Golden State’s Steph Curry were named starters.

Antetekounmpo and James were named team captains for being the highest vote-getters from each conference. They will draft their teams from the pool of starters and reserves from each conference. For the first time, that draft will take place right before the game.

Celtics star Jaylen Brown missed out on being an All-Star starter for the first time in his career, but he’s almost certainly a lock to be a reserve and become a second-time All-Star.

All-Star starter voting is accounted for by 50% fan vote, 25% from a media panel and 25% from a group of current players. The reserves will be voted on by coaches.

Tatum, after leading the Celtics to the NBA Finals last season, is having another career year in his sixth season while leading the C’s to the best record in the NBA. Through 49 team games, Tatum was tied for third in the NBA with a career-high 31.0 points with 8.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game while shooting 46.8 percent from the floor, and he’s a frontrunner for MVP.

“It’s incredible,” Malcolm Brogdon, who became Tatum’s teammate for the first time this year, said earlier this season. “We’ve gotten to play him a good amount in my career and he’s taken a giant step every year. And to play the way he did last year, to be in the MVP race at times last year, and then to take the jump he’s taken this year has been pretty incredible to watch. But, undoubtedly, he should be leading the MVP race right now. I mean, he’s playing at a superstar level.”

Marcus Smart missed his third consecutive game with the right ankle sprain he suffered in Saturday’s win over the Raptors. Mazzulla said the point guard is wearing a sock to get his swelling down and they’re not in a rush to get him back. Smart told reporters this week in Miami that he expected to miss 1-2 weeks.

“We’re just being patient with it,” Mazzulla said. “Obviously it’s something he’s had before, something we don’t want to aggravate. He’s working to come back, and when he can, he will.”

Without Smart, Derrick White remained in the starting lineup Thursday against the Knicks. The Celtics have certainly missed their point guard on the offensive end, especially coming off back-to-back losses in which they were held under 100 points – the first time that’s happened this season.

“We’re definitely missing that from him from the standpoint of he’s done such a great job this year of dictating our pace,” Mazzulla said. “He’s done such a good job of finding guys in crossmatches in transition, creating crossmatches in transition with and without the ball, and then recognizing where the matchup is and being able to attack. Our offense is really, really organized in the first six seconds because of him so we’re definitely missing that. And then obviously what he brings defensively.”

The Celtics had a trio of regulars return Thursday night. Brown (right adductor management) and Al Horford (second night of back-to-back), who each missed Tuesday’s loss, were back as well as  Brogdon, who missed two consecutive games due to personal reasons. …

The C’s became the first team in NBA history to play in 6,000 regular season games on Thursday night. The Knicks have played the second-most regular season games with 5,991.