BSJ Game Report: Celtics 129, Pistons 102 - Jaylen Brown drops 33, C's cruise

Everything you need to know about the Celtics win over the Pistons, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

James Wiseman had a surprisingly big first quarter, while Boston was just a little off. Detroit had a two-point lead heading into the second, but Boston turned it on with about eight minutes to go to flip the game and go up 16 at the half. They methodically built their lead throughout the third and fourth behind Jaylen Brown, and ended up winning by 27 for their eighth straight win. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

- Efficient Jaylen Brown: Scoring 33 points on 19 shots is very good. He did whatever he wanted out there. 

- Pritchard keeps rolling: Finished with 20 points and nine assists and just one turnover. He’s a huge reason why the Celtics can keep being cautious with their stars. 

- Plugging along: Eight straight wins for Boston. Not only have they only lost two in a row twice this season, there have only been four losses all season that have not been followed by a winning streak. 

TURNING POINT

Detroit had 46-45 lead with 8:03 to go in the second, and then Boston whipped off a 24-5 run to take complete control. The lead never dipped below 14 after that. 

THINGS I LIKED

- Adjusting in the second quarter: The Celtics were a little too relaxed in the first quarter and they allowed Wiseman to get three offensive rebounds and six second-chance points. After that third one, Joe Mazzulla called a timeout and yelled “what the f--- are we doing?” as his guys walked back to the bench. Things changed after that.

After allowing five offensive rebounds to Detroit in the first, they cleaned that up and only allowed one offensive board in the second quarter on their way to breaking the game open. 

- Jaylen Brown: Not only did he drop an easy 33 points, he had four steals. His usage rate was 33.8%, which isn’t outrageously high (he’s had 10 games this season with a higher usage rate), so he did a great job dominating the game without dominating the ball. 

“I love just the way he's carrying himself out there in the court,” Mazzulla said after the game. “He's processing each and every possession on both ends of the floor, he's taking the shots that he wants, he's making plays for himself for his teammates. It's been an honor to coach him. He’s been just playing well-rounded basketball on both ends. It's been fun to watch.”

- Derrick White: He didn't shoot well, but he still hit the timely ones and got to the line. He finished with 19 points and 11 assists. So Boston’s starting backcourt checked in with 39 points and 20 assists combined. That's a really great night.

- Sam Hauser: I’m just happy he came back so quickly. He shot 4-11 from 3, so almost at his normal percentage, so he seems fine. 

- This alley oop from JD Davison to Neemias Queta: 

That's that Maine Celtics chemistry in action.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- Xavier Tillman: This one was a little bit of a struggle for him. I still think he can be a playoff contributor, but I think he struggled in his pick-and-roll coverage in this one and it cost Boston in the first quarter. I think the game turned when they went with Oshae Brissett and sat Tillman. 

He’ll get plenty more opportunities over these next few weeks. He’s still new and the downside to the changing lineups is that he’s getting a lot of new combinations thrown at him. Right now he’s a different player next to the fully healthy Celtics than he in these different rotations. Still a work in progress. 

HIGHLIGHTS

THREE TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- This game actually shows how good the Celtics are. 

How many teams can lose three of their top six players win this comfortably? Not many. 

The Celtics are doing their best impression of the spring training Red Sox by sending out split squads to Detroit and Chicago and they still won incredibly comfortably. 

I know it’s the Pistons, so I’m not going to go on a long soliloquy about it, I’m just going to leave the thought here. The Celtics were missing their best player, their best defender, and their sixth man, and they still ended up winning by nearly 30. It doesn’t even matter how bad the Pistons are, that's impressive. 

- Don’t make anything of Brown’s zero assists

Assist stats can be tricky because you can look at the zero and it suggests he didn’t pass the ball. But assists require shots to fall to be registered. I think he moved the ball when he was supposed and either shots didn’t fall, or there was another pass. 

I’ll bet the tracking stats tomorrow will tell the complete story. 

- The league should look at the Washington Wizards court

I didn’t notice this at the time but looking at the replay of Hauser’s ankle sprain, it’s pretty jarring how little space there is between the sideline and the court. 

Go look at the highlights from this game and look at the space between the sideline and the court. Of course Hauser sprained an ankle … he didn’t expect feet to be there because feet aren’t normally there. 

I honestly don’t know if there is a standard for the space between the sideline and the court. I assume there is but I can’t find it anywhere at the moment. I know they changed the baselines and that has been great. If there's a standard for the sidelines, it needs to be enforced. The Celtics got lucky Hauser’s injury wasn’t worse. 

Next up: Celtics take on Chicago tomorrow night on the back-to-back