BOSTON — After a third-quarter Detroit Pistons run had whittled their lead away, the Boston Celtics spent the fourth quarter fighting back. A rough Anfernee Simons layup and a trailing Derrick White three helped them do that. But then, Cade Cunningham happened. “Especially the one coming out of timeout, the one right in front of our bench, I thought that was a tough shot there,” Joe Mazzulla said postgame.
In an instant, a one-possession game became a two-possession game. A three-point game flipped into a six-point game. TD Garden was belligerent, but a timeout and Cunningham three later, silence. The crowd was hushed.
Those are the plays that define wins and losses. And the Celtics just didn’t make enough of them on Monday night.
“Credit to them. They made plays,” Mazzulla said. “They made some timely, open looks from three. They had a couple of timely live-ball turnovers, which we can control better. They made some big-time shots. So, I think it's a combination of both.”
Cade Cunningham and Pistons owned momentum vs. the Celtics (and that's what mattered most)
One play, Simons set a perfect screen to get Duncan Robinson in the action. The next, Javonte Green blew up Simons’ screen, nabbed a steal, and threw down a monster slam in transition.
Caris LeVert turned a near-steal into a clutch layup over Neemias Queta’s outstretched arm. Cunningham blew up a flare screen and got Tobias Harris two free throws in transition. He nailed a pair of mid-range buckets with under two minutes to go to keep Detroit ahead.
“He's elite. Really good at basketball,” White said of Cunningham. “And I think his size, and he shot it well today, too. I think every game is gonna be difficult trying to slow him down and, obviously, he made some big plays down the stretch.”
No matter how many clutch White buckets or crucial Jaylen Brown passes out of double-teams the Celtics received, it wasn’t enough to keep up with the Pistons’ heroics.
Boston just didn’t bring enough juice to the table.
“I think they made some more defensive plays than we did. That led to some points. And then, we didn't really shoot the ball well to kind of counteract that,” Brown said. “I thought we got a bunch of great looks, though. I thought our offense did what it needed to do. I thought our defense was good at times.
“Maybe we could have been better in the foul margin area, but we were in the fight. I got to do better to get my team over the hump. My mind, I wasn't– I didn't have my best game tonight. So, that's on me.”
The Celtics’ lack of shot-making to counteract the Pistons’ defense stood out in the third quarter. As Detroit grabbed three steals and earned five shots out of fast break opportunities, Boston shot just 1-of-10 from deep.
It was an eerily similar showing to their 0-of-12 third quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night. Though the two games aren’t mirror images of one another.
“In the first game, that was just, we didn't play well. This game, I thought we executed, thought we got some really good looks,” said Mazzulla. “I thought we didn't make them. We obviously had some possessions where we either didn't execute, find the right spacing, or we just kind of, we had 13 turnovers.
“A couple of those live-ball [ones] were for dunks. But I thought it was a better process tonight than it was in the past game, for sure. I thought they just made more plays than we did down the stretch.”
Those plays—the Cunningham steal, the Green dunk, the LeVert layup—were the difference. Boston’s failure to capitalize on open three-point attempts was the difference. As one side rolled forward, feeding on its own successes, the other saw the opposite effect.
“That's the game,” said White. “Sometimes everybody's making it, momentum is high, sometimes everybody's missing. It's kind of the name of the game. They say make or miss league, right? So, try to limit as much of those, especially, [you would want] one guy or two guys kind of keep it going. But it's part season, part of the journey, and keep getting good looks, keep shooting with confidence, and trust one another.”
That momentum, or perhaps the opposite of it, burdened Boston. With each miss, pressure built up. Every shot became the most important shot. A necessity.
As Cunningham slowly lifted the Pistons into a position to win, the Celtics began fighting with themselves. Turnovers, airballed threes, and a tough loss at home followed.
“Momentum is crazy,” said White. “I don't think anybody understands it. You can figure out when it's going to happen, but obviously, momentum, confidence, they kind of go hand in hand.”
Detroit didn’t just win the momentum game on Monday night.
They controlled it.