BSJ Game Report: Pistons 113, Celtics 104 - Streak stops at eight as C's run out of gas taken at BSJ Headquarters (Celtics)

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Celtics

BSJ Game Report: Pistons 113, Celtics 104 - Streak stops at eight as C's run out of gas

By Brian Robb

Dec 15, 2018 • 11:48 pm

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Everything you need to know about the Pistons beating the Celtics 113-104 in BSJ Quickie Form

Box Score 

HEADLINES

The streak comes to an end: The Celtics’ eight-game winning streak came to a halt in a relatively ugly fashion on Saturday night, as the Detroit Pistons outworked the visitors on both ends for the better part of 48 minutes on the way to a 113-104 victory. Blake Griffin had a game-high 27 points and Andre Drummond added 19 points, 20 rebounds and five blocks as Detroit ended their own six-game losing streak with a much-needed win at Little Caesar’s Arena.

Kyrie Irving had a team-high 26 points while Marcus Smart added a season-high 21 points (5-of-7 from 3-point range), but the starting backcourt could not make up for a dud of an offensive performance by the rest of Boston’s supporting cast. The rest of the roster was a combined 2-of-20 from downtown, with Marcus Morris (0-of-6) and Gordon Hayward (0-of-4) serving as the main offenders, missing a number of open looks.

A rough night from the bench: While Irving (3-of-13 in the second half) could not carry Boston back into the game after falling behind by as many as 15 points in the second half, his supporting cast did little to pick up the slack on the tail end of a back-to-back. Hayward was aggressive with his shot, almost to a fault at times, as he was 3-of-11 from the field. Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier combined for just five points and five turnovers over 40-plus minutes as they were outclassed by a Pistons bench that featured Jose Calderon, Langston Galloway and Stanley Johnson. Detroit was the more motivated and rested team is this matchup, but it was inexcusable for Boston's bench to get outscored 30-21 based on the discrepancy in talent level and the fact that the C's were relatively well rested after a blowout on Friday night.  

TURNING POINT

After trailing most of the fourth quarter by double digits, the Celtics trimmed the Pistons' lead to just seven points with four minutes remaining, forcing Dwane Casey to call a timeout. It looked like Boston might have a little magic left to make things interesting, but Detroit executed perfectly in the halfcourt to get Reggie Bullock a wide-open 3 out of the break, which kicked off a 7-0 run to push the hosts' lead back up to 14 with 2:53 remaining, effectively putting the game away. Drummond then sealed it with this block.




TWO UP


Marcus Smart:
 


Kyrie Irving in the first half:
The All-Star put on a show before the break despite the Pistons' attempts to get physical with him on the perimeter. He scored 17 of his 26 points before intermission on 8-of-12 shooting, helping what was an otherwise cold-shooting Celtics offense stay within one point of the Pistons at halftime. He trailed off after the break but still managed to grab eight rebounds and dish out a team-high six assists. 






TWO DOWN


Jaylen Brown: 


3-point shooting:
 It was due for some regression after the team knocked down 41 percent of their attempts from deep over the course of an eight-game winning streak. They got plenty of good looks against a pedestrian Pistons defense, but no one outside of Marcus Smart was knocking them down. Boston shot 27 percent as a team and without Smart's big night they made just 4-of-26 collectively.   


TOP PLAY




TWO TAKES B-ROBB WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER


This loss isn't worth getting worked up about:
It wasn't a scheduled loss, but the circumstances were ripe for an upset here. The Pistons were well rested and had two days to prepare for a Celtics team that was playing their third game in four nights. Detroit had also lost six straight games, and it was easy to tell there was motivation there for Griffin and Drummond from the opening tip. When those two guys have it going, it's a very tough team to defend. The Celtics showed some slippage on the defensive end and their bench got into some bad habits (too much isolation and quick shots), but there was still some fight until the very end of this one. No one got hot so the C's couldn't make it interesting in the end. There is still plenty to work on and some individual guys (Jaylen Brown) to be worried about, but Brad Stevens won't lose much sleep over this loss. 


An interesting decision awaits with Al Horford: Brad
Stevens
Robert Williams
Brook Lopez
Joel Embiid

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