Final: Pistons 113, Celtics 104 -- Griffin, Drummond end C's winning streak

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 put a halt to 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 an offensive dud of a 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 by missing a number of open looks.

Defensively, the C's struggled with their rotations onto 3-point shooters, as they tried to balance taking away lobs to the Pistons frontcourt and defending the Pistons shooters (Reggie Bullock, Luke Kennard). The visitors also just looked flat overall on both ends as they played their third game in a third different city over four nights.

The Celtics drop to 18-11 on the year with the defeat and will now get three days of rest before hosting the Suns on Wednesday night back at the Garden. 

First Half Notes 

• Pistons and Celtics open the game at an pretty incredible offensive pace with both teams push the ball hard off of makes and misses which provided for an entertaining back and forth.


• The Pistons had couple days of rest while the C's are coming off a back-to-back so that type of uptempo likely favors Detroit tonight.


• C's did a nice job preventing a lot of damage in the paint early on from the likes of Drummond and Griffin but they really had trouble getting out to the Pistons shooters, who went 7-of-14 from downtown in the first half.


• Kyrie Irving did a very nice job of pushing the tempo and attacking the basket early but he was the only one who did the heavy lifting with 17 points. No one else on the C's had more than seven.


• Very tough half for Jaylen brown who continued to be out of control driving to the rim and had a couple of ugly turnovers in transition.


• Theis knocked down a couple of 3s early but rest of his teammates struggled from beyond the arc, 3-of-13 in first half.


• Pretty high level offensive play from both sides. C's will need to start knocking down some jumpers and do better with rotations on the perimeter to have a chance to close this one out and get their ninth straight win.

• Al Horford will miss his fifth straight game as he continues to rest his sore left knee. Guerschon Yabusele also remains out while the remainder of the roster will be at full strength as this group goes for their ninth straight win and third victory of the year over the Pistons.


• The Pistons have lost six straight games overall to drop to .500, including a heartbreaker to the Hornets on Wednesday night in Charlotte. They will be motivated and well rested against Boston tonight but scoring should be an issue for them. They have dropped to 24th overall in offensive rating over the past few weeks.


• The Celtics are averaging 125 points per game during their eight-game winning streak and have shot 49 percent from the field and 41 percent from 3-point range during that stretch.


• Keep an eye on Daniel Theis tonight off the bench against Detroit's frontline. He has had his two of his best career games against the Pistons over the last couple of seasons, including 20 points in a win earlier this season. With Baynes still on a minutes limit, look for big minutes for him tonight.