The Morning After Recap: Boston Celtics collapse against winless Pistons

The Boston Celtics found a way to lose to the winless Detroit Pistons on Friday night. Let’s see what went wrong and what can change for their next matchup.

The Boston Celtics found themselves leading 93-88 over the Detroit Pistons with 4:15 left to go in the game. This, after a miserable 12 point first quarter, would be an encouraging comeback win to lift the spirits of the team.

However, they didn’t score for the remainder of the game, and the Pistons won their first game of the season by a score of 96-93.

Boston missed their last 10 shot attempts, including open looks from Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Marcus Smart alike. They got the Celtics back into the game, but couldn’t close it in the end, missing shots they usually make with ease.

Down the stretch, Smart was doing the majority of the ball-handling, and the offense wasn’t moving as much as it should. This led to stagnant offense and low-pass possessions.

Late in the game, it would have been nice to drive to the basket and attack Mason Plumlee at the rim but, instead, they settled for shots from distance.

Coach Brad Stevens drew up a great out of bounds play to give Tatum an open corner three with 16 seconds left — he simply missed the shot. Then, an offensive rebound by Daniel Theis gave the Celtics another shot.  This time, Smart drove to the basket and left an easy left-handed layup short.

Finally, down three with five seconds left, Brown got an open wing three out of another Stevens timeout, and it wouldn’t fall. If just one of those attempts went down, we could be talking about a great comeback win after a terrible start.

Instead, the Pistons came away with the win.

In the first quarter, the Cs only scored 12 points on 5-19 shooting. Through nine minutes of play, they had only recorded five points. Sometimes shots just don’t fall, but the carelessness with the ball was unacceptable.

Sure, the Boston Celtics were playing their third game in four days, but this is a team perceived as one you should beat handily. With seven turnovers in the first 12 minutes — five of them coming from the starting lineup — Stevens looked to a spark from the bench in Carsen Edwards.

That didn’t work, as he only played four minutes and failed to score.

Down 15 points to the winless Pistons, Boston had to fight their way back into the game, led by a surprisingly good third quarter. Both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum caught fire to eventually give the Celtics the lead.

Brown finished with 25 points on 12-20 shooting from the field, continuing his scorching hot start to the season. Along with this, he had nine rebounds, two assists, three blocks, and two steals.

He seemed to be hitting every shot he put up until he, like the rest of the Celtics, got cold at the worst possible time.

Whenever he is the ball handler in the pick-and-roll, he either takes it hard to the rim or creates separation for a mid range shot, something he has almost perfected. Although he couldn’t hit the shot down the stretch, he still had a fantastic game off of his career-high on Wednesday night.

Similarly, Tatum had a good game for himself. He finished with 28 points on 11-24 shooting from the floor and 3-11 shooting from downtown.

One key aspect to look at is his free throw shooting, which has become inconsistent compared to previous years. He went 3-5 from the line in this one.

Tatum got his looks late in the game and missed them… it happens. After a rocky start, it’s good to see the Jays still combine for 53 points and attempt to will their team to a win.

On the other hand, the supporting cast could’ve done more to help the young stars. Marcus Smart had 13 points on 5-14 from the field and 3-6 from distance.

The Boston Celtics coaching staff would like to see that number get more efficient, but he did hit some key buckets early in the game to help them remain within striking distance.

Once again, like everyone else, he couldn’t buy a bucket to save his life in the last four minutes.

Ideally, you don’t want him taking shots down the stretch, but they were pretty wide open for a late-game opportunity, so it’s still a decent choice.

Jeff Teague had his best game since opening night, finishing with 12 points on 4-5 shooting off the bench.

Him and Grant Williams combined for all of Boston’s bench points (20). He played similarly to how Payton Pritchard did in Indiana, controlling the offense and getting extra possessions with active hands on defense.

Williams had a good offensive game for his standards, shooting 4-7 but, again, had an uncharacteristically bad defensive performance, puzzling fans and coaches alike.

He was beaten off the dribble by the Pistons’ wings, jumped on multiple pump fakes, and has simply messed up defensive rotations more than in his rookie year.

He picked up four fouls in 19 minutes of play and needs to learn how to defend without fouling if he wants to gain more minutes on this C’s team.

Coach Stevens once again went to the double big starting lineup of Tristan Thompson and Daniel Theis, and it didn’t look good on either end of the ball.

On offense, both Tatum and Brown had no space to operate on the pick-and-roll, as the Pistons defenders were completely leaving Theis beyond the three-point line, daring him to hit a three.

He didn’t this game and only attempted one, leaving an extra defender in the paint if any Celtic were to try to drive. Because of this, a traditional point guard should probably step into the starting lineup instead of one of the bigs, such as Pritchard or Teague.

On defense, one of the two bigs often found themselves on Jerami Grant, who is too quick for either of them to guard. He ended with a team-high 24 points.

Instead of this, one of the bigs should have guarded Saddiq Bey, who isn’t taking anyone off the dribble, and put Tatum on Grant for a better matchup. Therefore, on both sides of the ball, the starting lineup should change for their next game in Detroit.

This is a bad loss. Teams have bad losses; sometimes good teams lose to bad teams.

This doesn’t mean the Boston Celtics are a bad team.

Let’s see them bounce back on Sunday afternoon.