DETROIT – If you’d have been told beforehand that the Pistons would limit Jayson Tatum, Al Horford and Kyrie Irving to a combined 13 points, you’d probably have bet on them waking up 5-0. Instead, Saturday’s game was effectively over by the midway point of the second quarter when Boston’s bench led the Celtics to a 26-point lead.
The Pistons managed only 89 points on 37 percent shooting as Boston became the first team to slow Blake Griffin. In fact, the Celtics flat-out stopped him. Averaging 33.8 points through the first four games to lead the NBA, Griffin missed his first six shots before scoring on a goaltend call. He finished 2 of 13 for seven points.
“I just missed open shots early,” said Griffin, who made it clear at a few points in the game that he felt he should have attempted more than the four free throws he wound up taking. “I tried to attack at times and get to the foul line and it didn’t go that way.”
Dwane Casey, in fact, picked up a first-quarter technical foul arguing for just that.
But Casey wasn’t offering any delusional hot takes on why the Pistons lost the game. Boston simply outplayed them, affirming the No. 1 ranking at the defensive end the Celtics carried into the game by smothering the Pistons inside and out.
“They are rated the best defensive team in the league,” Casey acknowledged. “But that level of play is how hard you have to play from start to finish. I take responsibility for us not coming out and being as focused as we should’ve been. When you play against a team like Boston, they expose you. We only had – what? Sixteen assists? The ball wasn’t moving and against a good defensive team, it’ll expose you.”
Boston’s bench effectively decided the game in the second quarter as the trio of ex-Piston Marcus Morris, Daniel Thies and Terry Rozier 24 of their 49 points in that quarter when Boston outscored the Pistons 33-20.
The Pistons shot 7 of 37 from the 3-point arc. Griffin, who came into the game as the NBA’s top 3-point shooter (.652) among players taking at least three attempts a game, was 0 of 4. Reggie Bullock, who was the top 3-point shooter in the NBA last season among players taking at least three triples a game once he moved into the starting lineup in mid-December, hit 1 of 5 and is now shooting 20 percent from the arc for the season. Langston Galloway was 0 of 5 and he’s down to 15 percent.
“It’s the same thing Boston just went through,” Casey said. “They were shooting horrendous. But at some point, your shots will start falling. As long as they’re good rhythm shots. Our shooters have to continue to shoot and at some point they will fall. They’ve just got to keep their confidence.”
The glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel was the outing of Stanley Johnson, who hit 3 of 8 triples and had established a new season scoring high by the time the first quarter was out when he scored 11 of his 16 points. At the other end, it was Johnson responsible for shackling Tatum, who hit 2 of 9 shots.
“I thought this was Stanley’s all around one of his better games,” Casey said. “Defensively, I thought he was into it. Jayson Tatum is a handful to guard.”
Andre Drummond, whose scoring and rebounding averages against the Celtics are his best against all NBA teams, found himself in early foul trouble for the third time in five games. He finished with a season-low eight rebounds to go with 18 points.
If this was a measuring stick game, as Casey said, it won’t take long for the Pistons to gauge their growth. Their next game comes Tuesday – at Boston.
“It’s the beauty of the NBA,” Griffin said. “You normally get a chance to redeem yourself pretty quickly. We’ve got a chance to get a day of rest, get a day of work and then go on and play and little bit better.”