With 4:15 left in the fourth quarter, Jayson Tatum swished home his second three in 58 seconds to give the Celtics a 93-88 lead over the Detroit Pistons.
After trailing 23-5 to begin the game and by as many as 21 points in the first half, the clearly superior Celtics had now jaunted ahead of the 0-4 Pistons and, despite the dodgy start, looked to be on their way to a third straight win.
They didn’t score another point.
The Pistons squeezed a couple hoops down the rim in the final four minutes, while the Celtics could not manage a single layup, free throw, or anything resembling a made field goal. After Derrick Rose’s layup gave Detroit a 94-93 lead with under a minute to go, the Pistons had sealed the win.
Boston got four go-ahead or game-tying shots in the final 27 seconds, but none of them went in.
First, Marcus Smart sprinted into an unneccessarily rushed wide open three and clanked it off the rim. Then, after Saddiq Bey made just one of two free throws, Jayson Tatum got a wide open corner three off a perfect screen from Daniel Theis.
But Tatum didn’t get enough lift on the ball, and it hit the front rim. Theis would clasp the offensive rebound and kick it back out to Marcus Smart, but Smart’s isolation led to a missed lefty floater in the paint.
Finally, after Mason Pumlee duplicated Bey’s performance at the line, Jaylen Brown missed a three moving to his right after a play drawn up by Brad Stevens sprung him a fair look in the final seconds.
The Pistons celebrate their first conquest of the season while the Celtics are left to wonder what led to falling at the hands of such a subserviant team. My thoughts:
- I think it’s pretty clear what led to that whole “losing to a subserviant team” nonsense: the sluggish beginning and the stretch of 4:15 at the end of the game where the Celtics didn’t score. To start the game, the Celtics looked dazed, confused, and in slow motion. Once they took the five-point lead, they settled for jumper after jumper, figuring their comeback had been completed and just one little jump shot would put Detroit away. In the last 4:15, Marcus Smart’s feeble lefty layup with 5 seconds remaining served as the only attempt at the rim in that stretch. Tatum missed several jumpers, Jaylen Brown airballed a three before his final miss at the buzzer, and Grant Williams also hit back rim on a three. The Celtics offense slowed down to a halt, isolating for jumpers in crunch time, and it didn’t work.
- Back to start of the game: I don’t know if the Celtics did a little too much partying on New Year’s Eve or what, but it looked like everybody was waiting for someone to step up and take charge, yet no one did. A lid remained of the basket for quite some time, as did a cap on the Celtics’ energy reserve. They played with the spirit of a funeral procession and/or a three hour nap. At least the Celtics came back and nearly won the game, showing that the Pistons should provide little competition for them on a typical night, but the large hole dug early on followed by that 4:15 drought spelled out the loss.
- I have little to worry about if the Celtics respond with a blowout win against these same Pistons on Sunday. No excuses remain for another slow start, so take care of business tomorrow against a clearly terrible team and move on with the rest of the season.
- Some positives: once the third quarter began, the Celtics’ interior defense was impenetrable. Daniel Theis and Tristan Thompson stopped Jerami Grant and others on countless drives to the rim. After Theis got popped on by Grant in the first half, he and Thompson made sure it wouldn’t happen again in the second half.
- Tatum and Brown looked great before the closing time pitter-patter. Tatum scored 14 in the third period to get the Celtics to within six, and Brown went on a personal 7-0 run to start the fourth quarter to give Boston a lead. If those two are playing well and scoring consistently, the Celtics look like a perfect ice cream sundae. If they don’t, then you get losses to the Pistons that resemble dairy free vanilla. While the J-Team still ended up combining for a respectable 53 points, they coalesced for just 15 during the first half disaster.
- It didn’t help that Daniel Theis, Tristan Thompson, and Robert Williams combined for just 7 points on 3-8 shooting. Mason Plumlee and Isaiah Stewart kept those three off the offensive glass, where a good part of their production comes from. I also don’t believe the Celtics threw a single alley-oop pass in the game, which makes up a large portion of both Theis’ and Williams’ points. Credit to the Detroit interior defense, I guess.
- Jeff Teague continues to be a pest on the defensive end, coming up with two more steals yesterday. So far, Teague has done a good job just waiting in the shadows and attacking the ball at the right time. A lot of his steals have come on quick double teams, leaving his man abruptly to gamble for the takeaway, and the gambles have paid off a lot more than they haven’t.
- If not for Saddiq Bey, the Celtics might have won this game easily. Bey hit four threes in the third quarter, which totaled half of all the Pistons’ points in that period. He kept them afloat as all his teammates bricked shot after shot.
- I hope Rob Williams is OK. He banged knees with somebody late in the game, and didn’t return. Big Rob is tough. I think he’ll be fine.
- The Celtics struggled from the line once again, making just half of their 14 attempts. Missed free throws make me want to pull all my teeth out. In the past two games, the Celtics have made free thows seem like expensive throws.
Ok, time to forget that unpleasant loss and wipe the floor with these sorry car parts on Sunday. Until then…
CHILL YOURSELF DYLAN WOODS 