BSJ Game Report: Celtics 130, Pistons 120 - Brown starts hot, Porzingis, Pritchard close the door on Detroit

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

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics built a first-quarter lead as high as 19 behind some great all-around defense and 16 points from Jaylen Brown. The Pistons hung around in the second and knocked a point of Boston’s lead to make it 14 at the half. They added a point in the third behind a 14-point quarter by Sam Hauser and four Brown assists. The lead grew to 20 early in the fourth but Detroit started hitting 3-pointers and cut it to six before Boston answered and held the Pistons off.

Box Score

HEADLINES

- Jaylen Brown’s big game: He finished with 28 points on 10-21 shooting, nine assists, six rebounds, and three steals. He slowed down a little later in the game and his assists stalled because the shooting went cold, but his first half was elite. He was attacking at will and seeing the floor well.

- Won it in the first quarter: This isn’t exactly building a big lead and then cruising, but the Celtics went up 15 in the first quarter and lost the next three quarters by five. Most of that was in the fourth quarter, but still, the Celtics played their best in the first 12 minutes of the game and it was a fight from there. 

- Shorter rotations: Drew Peterson got some early run but was subbed out after a few minutes and didn’t return. Jordan Walsh and Xavier Tillman got quick stints, but nothing significant. Payton Pritchard and Luke Kornet were the only two guys who got real minutes off the bench.

TURNING POINT

Boston went on a 9-1 run after the lead was cut to six in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach. Six of those points belonged to Kristaps Porzingis. The Pistons did cut it to five after this, but they didn’t have enough to make the full comeback. 

THINGS I LIKED

- Jaylen Brown (especially his court vision): The Celtics shot less than 40% in the second half so there's no doubt some of his passes that were destined to be assists 10, 11, and 12 will go down as potential assists instead. Regardless, his court vision was excellent in this game. He probably could have been more aggressive in the second half instead of looking for more 3-pointers, but overall he it felt like had firm control of Boston’s offense. 

- Sam Hauser: He probably should have gotten a few more looks, considering he shot 7-12 and 5-10 from 3. He finished the night with 20 points and an early stretch of really great defense switching onto Cade Cunningham. 

- Payton Pritchard: His 20-point scoring streak is over. He only had 19 in this one. What a bum. 

Okay he scored 12 in the fourth quarter, shooting 4-6 all on 3-pointers. He also managed two offensive rebounds, which I always think is a sin committed by the other team but is, in actuality incredible effort and positioning. 

“I just thought he made big-time plays, whether it was the offensive rebound, whether it was the play at the end of the game, or just pushing the pace,” Joe Mazzulla said. “I thought obviously (Malik) Beasley hit some tough ones, but I thought the last few minutes, he did a better job on him. So he can just impact the game in so many different ways.”

- Kristaps Porzingis: 26 points on 8-17 shooting (3-7 3pt), nine rebounds, two assists, and two blocks. He scored eight of his points in the fourth quarter. 

“It starts with when KP is being great defensively at the rim,” Brown said. “When he’s protecting the rim like that, he can shoot as many threes as he motherf---ing wants. So just always trying to find him, and always trying to take care of the big. He’s working down there, so reward him; get him some shots, get him feeling good. Then he’ll start to eat.”

- Al Horford: Just a steady presence every night. He was 4-6 from deep and scored 14 points while playing some really good defense again. 

- Derrick White: Not the best shooting night but he did have 11 assists. My favorite thing was the absolute knowledge that when Cunningham dunked on him, White would get him back with a block.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- Defensive lapses: It felt like the Celtics were good with the first-quarter defensive effort and they only went back to it when they needed to in spurts. It’s hard to argue because they were up 20 in the fourth quarter and answered Detroit’s late run to put the game away. But I don’t have to like it.

- Jaylen Brown refusing the heave: He had the ball at the end of the third quarter and let time expire instead of firing up the heave. A few of the guys threw their arms out in disbelief, including Porzingis. So I asked him if Brown should have shot it. 

“100%,” he said. “He gave me some BS excuse like ‘I didn’t catch it properly.’ No. He didn’t want to shoot it. Next time you gotta shoot it, 100%”

- The throat-slash celebration after Brown’s poster dunk: I’m only putting it here because it’s going to cost him money, for sure. 

“Just caught up in the moment, I guess,” Brown said. “Big play. I think the NBA and the PA are sensitive about the gestures and things like that. You gotta be mindful of that."

Does he expect a call from the league?

“Oh yeah.”

HIGHLIGHTS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- The Celtics defense is shifting. 

With Porzingis back, the 3-point/points in the paint balance is starting to change. The Pistons are a middle-of-the-road long-range team but they shot 20-39 in this game. Some of it is outlier shooting, which seems to happen to Boston a lot. But once again, a game with Porzingis at center leads to a change in the balance of what Boston is allowing. 

“Now that we're double big and we're fully healthy, we're in a little bit of different defenses to where we're protecting the paint better and we're doing that,” Mazzulla explained. “I think that's just a little bit of the variance … I think it's a little bit of the shooting has just gotten better around the league in general. I think more teams just have that, and the variance of that is going to get to you sometimes.”

The Celtics won the points in the paint battle in this one 44-38. 

I don’t know if this is good or bad, but things are shifting, which means how Boston wins is shifting. We saw in this game that Beasley and the Pistons got hot in the fourth quarter and suddenly a 20-point lead got down to six in just a couple of minutes. 

Those 20-point leads are meaningless now. This game was proof of the power of the 3 and why Mazzulla believes in that math so much. The Celtics have to spend some time finding the balance of what’s allowed and where now that Porzingis is back so they're not as susceptible to these kinds of swings. 

Next up: The Celtics homestand continues against the Bucks on Friday night.