1. Another Close Loss to the Pistons
For the third time in four matchups against the Detroit Pistons this season, the Celtics have lost in very close fashion. This was an incredible game of basketball overall. It was a back and forth game all night
long and Jaylen Brown just missed the game winning shot by an inch. Definitely not the desired outcome for Boston, there were a lot of mistakes and very cold shooting but it was a great fight. In the three losses this season, Boston has only lost by 6,7, and 1 point. The Pistons are first in the East for a reason and the Celtics showed that they were able to hang with them even without Jayson Tatum.
2. Tobias Harris/Duncan Robinson Legacy Game?
Tobias Harris and Duncan Robinson have been no strangers to the Celtics over the years. Harris spent 6 seasons on the Philadelphia 76ers and Robinson spent 7 years on the Miami Heat. Boston has battled and matched up with them numerous amounts of times, but I can’t say I have seen both of them play actually productive games against the Celtics until this game. Tobias Harris finished with 25 points on 11-20 shooting from the field and Duncan Robinson finished with 15 points on 5 three points. In a game where Boston was able to slow down Cade Cunningham, it was really demoralizing to see them go off in this game.
Robinson made some really timely shots for Detroit all night long but none were bigger than his three in the fourth quarter. He got the ball on the wing, shook Derrick White out of his shoes on a pump fake, and splashed the three
Harris also made some timely threes in the fourth quarter but his biggest came at the 1:37 mark. The shot clock was running low and Cade Cunningham was looking to pass the ball. Hauser stepped up to Cunningham and left Harris wide open in the corner for three that made it a 4 point Pistons lead that basically won them the game.
3. Detroit Bigs Crushed Boston
One big advantage the Pistons are always going to have over the Celtics is their big man rotation. Jalen Duren finished with 18 points and 9 rebounds while Isaiah Stewart finished with 8 points and 5 rebounds. When Detroit ran their double big man lineup, it really killed Boston, especially with both Luka Garza and Neemias Queta getting into foul trouble.
Duren had a stretch in the third quarter where he showed how much of a dominant force he really was. At the 4:26 mark, the Pistons were running the fast break off of a Celtics miss. Cunningham ran to the corner, threw up an alley-oop pass to Duren who was streaking down the court and he finished a thunderous slam over Anfernee Simons. Then later in the quarter at the 3:33 mark, Duren again was a force in the paint, following a missed layup by Stewart for a put-back slam.
Stewart made a ton of great defensive plays in this game but none were bigger than the block he had on Neemias Queta in the second quarter. Queta got the ball in the middle of the floor and rose up for a two-handed jam. However, Stewart came out of no where to jump perfectly with Queta to swat the ball away.
4. Turnovers Hurt
The Celtics finished this game with 14 turnovers but with the way they were throwing the ball around, it really felt like they had more. Detroit was able to take advantage almost every time, scoring 19 points off of Boston’s turnovers and at times it was the only reason why the Pistons were able to stay in the game. A lot of them were turnovers where the Celtics would just lose the handle on the ball or make an errant pass that lead to an easy basket for the Pistons. Take this play from Jaylen Brown for example, Brown loses the handle and the Pistons go down the court the other way for easy layup. This was an all night problem for Boston and it really felt like they just shot themselves in the foot.
5. All-Star Starter: Jaylen Brown
Jaylen Brown was voted as an All-Star Starter before tonight’s game and showed why he was deserving of his spot, finishing with a double-double of 32 points and 11 rebounds on 11-28 shooting. Brown did all he could to will the Celtics to a win in this game but just came up short in the end. The outcome shouldn’t deter the great game he had however because he made some incredible plays against a tough Pistons defense late in the game to keep Boston in striking distance.
One of my favorite plays of the night from Brown came at the 2:30 mark in the first quarter. Defended by Ron Holland, Brown pump faked the three to get him to jump, then went to the midrange, created seperation with his off arm, and sank the jumper.
His fourth quarter was probably the biggest for Boston however, scoring 10 of the Celtics 21 points. Brown started with a play where he got to his spot at the free throw line, pump faked to get Caris LeVert in the air, and finished the midrange jumper through contact. He then matched up with Duncan Robinson at the three point line and blew by him. Brown then met Duren at the rim and finished a tough basket over him. Next was a play where Tobias Harris was all over him on defense but Brown was able to get by him and finish the layup with his right hand. Finally, Brown was once again matched up with Harris but this time he blew right by him to score a floater that made it a one point game with 45 seconds left.
7. Sam Hauser Continues to Impress
After hitting 10 threes against the Hawks in his last game, Sam Hauser continued his great run of play into this matchup with the Pistons, finishing with 16 points on 6-9 shooting from the field and 4-7 shooting from three. You can argue that Hauser was the second best player on the court for Boston as he had a huge stretch of scoring in the third quarter.
Hauser began the third quarter doing a great job running around the court to get to the top of the three point line for a pull-up jumper over two Pistons defenders. On his next basket, he made another cut to a similar spot at the three point line but a little farther. White found him and Hauser made another three over a great contest by Ausar Thompson. Finally, Hauser pulled out his midrange bag, taking Duncan Robinson off of the dribble. He drove, got Robinson up in the air, and hit the jumper looking a little bit like Jaylen Brown. Sadly this stretch got interrupted with him picking up his fourth foul but this was a great stretch that gave the Celtics energy coming out of halftime.
6. Payton Pritchard Back in the Lineup
After a tough game in Miami and missing the Celtics last game in Atlanta, Payton Pritchard made his return to the lineup for this matchup and had a pretty solid game, finishing with 17 points on 5-8 shooting. Although there were times he looked hesitant to shoot, he was able to make an impact. Like Hauser, Pritchard had a great third quarter where he dropped 10 points.
Pritchard’s third quarter started off of a nice pass from Jaylen Brown. Brown was double teamed on the block and found Pritchard who was wide open on the wing for three. His next play started with a pass from Queta where he pump faked Robinson and drove to lane. He then hit a hesitation dribble and put up a midrange shot over Duren for a tough bucket. His final play of the third quarter started with him blowing by Harris on the perimeter where he was picked up by Isaiah Stewart. Pritchard did a good job of getting to the basket and was able to finish a reverse layup over the contest from Stewart. I hope this game is able to get Pritchard going again for a while because the Celtics are in desperate need of a consistent number two option next to Jaylen Brown right now.
8. Tough Derrick White Game
This was arguably the worst game of the season for Derrick White, finishing with 4 points on 1-11 shooting and 0-6 from three. He did have 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 blocks on Cade Cunningham but this was the worst game in a string of rough games. In his last 4 games, White is averaging 9.3 points, 6.8 assists, and 6.0 rebounds, on 28% shooting from the field and 15% from three. This after White had a great month of December and looked to be shaking off the rust from his slow start to the season. It feels like there is a correlation between the Celtics winning and losing games this season and at times it feels like it comes down to if White is going to have a good game or not. I’m sure he will bounce back from this rough patch just like he did before but I just hope this doesn’t become a more concerning trend.
9. Brown vs Cunningham
Brian Scalabrine did a pregame interview with Jaylen Brown on NBC where he said that he would be the primary defender on the Pistons All-Star Starter Cade Cunningham in this game. Despite the loss, Brown and the Celtics did a pretty good job of defending Cunningham as a whole. He finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds but shot 4-17 from the field and 0-4 from three.
Out of the shot attempts where Brown looked to be the primary defender, Cunningham shot 1-5. On the first attempt, Brown rode Cunningham’s off hand all the way to the basket where Cade missed the layup. The second attempt saw Cunningham attempt a midrange jumper that Brown was able to block and even though they called it a foul, it was overturned on a Celtics challenge. The third attempt was another midrange jumper where Brown was able to get around a Duren screen for a nice contest. The fourth attempt saw Cunningham once again try to shake off Brown but Jaylen stayed glued to him and forced another contest jumper. The final attempt was the only attempt that Cunningham got the win on and was a big one. At the 2:21 mark of the fourth quarter Brown was stuck behind a screen from Thompson that allowed Cade to get into the lane for an easy floater.
If these two teams match up in a playoff series, I can see Brown being the primary defender on Cunningham again and hopefully holding him to a similar result in this game.
10. Playoff Atmosphere
All four games that the Celtics and Pistons have played this season have been down to wire, good old fashioned slugfests that have felt like the Game 7 of a playoff series. This is due to the intensity that comes out of both teams when they step foot on the floor and it feels like it will be a disservice to everyone who enjoys basketball if these two teams don’t matchup in the playoffs this season. Detroit has become a juggernaut behind their aggressive defense and timely offense while Boston is going to have Jayson Tatum back in a playoff series which increases almost every attribute on both sides of the ball for the Celtics. Ideally we get a rematch of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals with the same result but either way I love this budding rivalry and I hope we get to see it for years to come.
