FAST BREAKDOWN
Three quick observations from Saturday night’s 109-89 loss to the Boston Celtics at Little Caesars Arena
BOSTON STRANGLERS – Boston came into the game with the NBA’s top-rated defense and, no, it wasn’t just the noise of a small sample size. The Pistons can attest that the Celtics are, indeed, a very good defensive team. The Pistons were held to 41 first-half points and they trailed by 26 at one point in the second quarter. The second half was much better – the Pistons outscored Boston 26-21 in the third quarter before the Celtics outscored them 11-3 in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter – but that was too big of a hole to mount a serious comeback against a team that doesn’t give up easy points or runs of any magnitude. Boston’s defense started with the job the Celtics did on Blake Griffin. Griffin, averaging 33.8 points over his first four games, missed his first six shots, scored just three first-half points and finished with seven points on 2 of 13 shooting. The Pistons hit just 7 of 37 from the 3-point arc.
STANDOUT STANLEY – The most notable positive development for the Pistons was the outing of Stanley Johnson. Shooting just 30 percent in averaging 5.7 points in his first three games of the season, Johnson scored a season-high 11 points in the first quarter alone as he hit the only two 3-pointers the Pistons made in 10 attempts for the quarter. Johnson finished with 16 points and spent most of his night guarding Boston’s Jayson Tatum, who was limited to six on 2 of 9 shooting. But Boston’s depth overcame whatever issues caused by the fact that starters Tatum, Al Horford and Kyrie Irving combined for just 13 points. The Celtics held a 34-9 edge in bench scoring in the first half as Terry Rozier came up one point short of giving Boston three double-digit scorers off of its bench in the first half. Daniel Theis was questionable with a left foot sprain and only played because ex-Piston Aron Baynes missed the game with a hamstring strain, but he put up 14 points and seven rebounds in 12 first-half minutes. Theis, who had 19 points and 12 rebounds the last time the Celtics visited Little Caesars Arena last season, finished with 17 points and eight rebounds. Ex-Piston Marcus Morris had 18 points and Terry Rozier 14.
HELD DOWN – Andre Drummond has had some of his most memorable games against the Celtics, including a 26-point, 22-rebounds, six-assist, four-steal performance last November when the Pistons won by 10 against a Celtics team that had the NBA’s best record (18-3) at the time. His career averages in both points (17.1 per game) and rebounds (15.2) against Boston are his best vs. any NBA opponent. And it looked like he was off to another strong start with four points on 2 of 2 shooting and three rebounds in the game’s first four minutes. But then for the third time in five games, Drummond got into early foul trouble and went to the bench at the eight-minute mark of the first quarter with two fouls. He came back to play all 12 minutes of the second quarter without picking up his third foul and finished with 18 points and eight rebounds in 29 minutes. It was Drummond’s lowest rebound total of the season. Only two of his rebounds were offensive.