The Celtics’ six-game win streak is over, snuffed out by one of the NBA’s hottest and most surprising teams.
The Pistons dominated the second half of Wednesday’s matchup at Little Caesars Arena, cruising to a 117-97 victory over a Boston team that was playing without injured All-Star Jaylen Brown (thigh contusion).
It was the eighth consecutive victory for upstart Detroit, which already has surpassed its win total from the previous two seasons combined and is all but locked into its first playoff berth since 2019.
The Celtics went 21-for-49 from 3-point range in the loss (42.9%) and outscored the Pistons by 24 from beyond the arc, but Joe Mazzulla’s squad couldn’t match its young opponent’s poise and intensity on the second night of a back-to-back. Boston committed 19 turnovers and looked a step slow in the paint (where Detroit owned a commanding 62-20 scoring edge) and in transition (29-8).
Center Kristaps Porzingis returned after missing Tuesday’s win over Toronto with an illness, but he struggled, recording just 11 points and two rebounds and finishing as a team-worst minus-24. Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 27 points on 10-of-19 shooting, and Derrick White and Payton Pritchard each scored 18 points and hit five threes.
Boston’s non-Pritchard reserves scored totaled just three points before garbage time, however, and his top competitor for NBA Sixth Man of the Year, Malik Beasley, went off for Detroit. Beasley shot 10-for-15 from the field and 6-for-11 from three to finish with 26 points, five rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block. All-Star point guard Cade Cunningham added 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Pistons.
The Celtics generated quality looks early but struggled to convert them, starting 1-for-9 from the floor and missing their first seven 3-pointers. They scored just two points in the opening four minutes as Detroit raced out to a 13-2 lead.
Tatum quickly closed that gap by scoring eight points in a four-possession span, including a straightaway three off an ankle-breaking crossover that sent Cunningham flying. But his poor ball security created an opening for another Pistons run.
Detroit’s aggressive defense forced Boston into five turnovers in the final 2:13 of the first quarter, plus another a minute into the second. Tatum committed three of those — he had his pocket picked twice by second-year pro Ausar Thompson (seven points, six rebounds, five steals), whose twin brother Amen hit a game-winner against the Celtics last month — and the Pistons capitalized on his mishandles.
By the midway point of the second quarter, Detroit held a 45-31 lead. The Celtics, though, were able to pull even before halftime. How? Threes, threes and more threes.
Boston went 9-for-9 from beyond the arc over the final six minutes of the first half. Al Horford, who provided two of those nine makes, sparked the spree by pulling down a tough offensive rebound that led to a Porzingis triple. Pritchard hit three, Tatum one and White two, including one the veteran guard caught in midair and released before he landed to beat the shot clock.
The Celtics shot 14-for-26 from deep (53.8%) in the first half and entered the third quarter tied at 55-55.
That 3-point success masked some of Boston’s other deficiencies, like its leaky interior defense and issues in transition. It nosedived after halftime — the Celtics missed eight straight 3-point attempts during one spell — and Detroit took control of the game.
Reserves Jordan Walsh and Neemias Queta, who were on the floor for Boston’s first-quarter turnover fest, both struggled in the second half, as well. After Walsh and Queta checked in with 4:52 remaining in the third, the Celtics didn’t generate their next stop until the ninth Pistons possession (a Tatum steal with 18.1 seconds left in the quarter).
Beasley capped the third with a 3-pointer that put Detroit ahead 90-79, then drilled two more early in the fourth to essentially ice the game. Joe Mazzulla yanked his starters with 4:40 remaining and Boston down 16, closing the game with Walsh, JD Davison, Baylor Scheierman, Drew Peterson and Xavier Tillman.
The Celtics now will begin the most challenging stretch of their remaining schedule: a season-long seven-game homestand bookended by clashes with the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers (Friday night) and West-leading Oklahoma City Thunder (March 12).
Between those are visits from Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets (fifth-best record in the NBA entering Wednesday) and LeBron James, Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers (seventh-best), plus less daunting matchups against Portland, Philadelphia and Utah. The Celtics are a middling 18-10 in home games this season but won their last two by double digits.