Everything was going swimmingly for the Celtics on opening night until it wasn’t. Boston had opened up a 72-50 lead in Detroit, with Paul George on fire and the Pistons looking ready to quit. But everything flipped. It started with a few threes from Javonte Green to close the third quarter, then things completely spiraled in the fourth quarter as the Pistons ran away with a 23-0 run to put this one away.
And the biggest problem here was that the Celtics let Detroit beat them at their own game: on the margins. When things are rolling, they want to dominate the possession battle. We saw it much of last season and in the preseason, but it disappeared in the second half.
Celtics get smoked on the glass
The Celtics were outrebounded, 59-45, including 14-12 on the offensive glass, as the Pistons won second-chance points, 24-16. The turnover margin was close at 17-14, slightly in favor of Boston, as was the three-point battle, going 17-15 to the Celtics.
But that wasn’t enough to overcome the rebounding woes. The Celtics technically outshot the Pistons with 88 field goal attempts to 86, but Detroit shot 11 more free throws, which proved to be a critical factor.
The Celtics' swarming defense was nowhere to be found, as Duncan Robinson curled off dribble-hand-offs, resulting in wide-open threes or costly fouls. Detroit scored 37 points in the third quarter and 39 in the fourth, a whopping 76 in the second half after Boston held them to just 18 in the second quarter.
The Pistons completely caught fire, and when they missed, they were grabbing their own shots off the rim for another opportunity. The Celtics were compounding the poor defense with equally poor offense. Detroit took away the threes and forced the Celtics to beat them off the dribble, which they were unable to do.
Celtics must win the margins to beat good teams
It was extremely ugly, and it was largely due to the opposite of what we’ve come to recognize as Celtics basketball. The team is very good and very deep, and we saw a lot of positives throughout the night. But this ultimately proved to be a painful reminder that without winning the margins and possession-maxxing, they are still vulnerable, especially against good teams.
The Pistons qualify as a good team, and one that also cleans up on the margins with great defense and a commitment to rebounding. At least on this night, they got the best of the Celtics, as their crowd carried them, their role players stepped up and hit shots, and Jayson Tatum had a brutal shooting night.
It’s a long season, and I have no doubt that Boston will clean some things up, and this gross loss will soon be forgotten, but it’s a rough way to open up the season and shows that the team still has a lot of work to do. The vibes have been sky-high, and they looked like a juggernaut in the preseason. Let’s see what happens now that they’ve hit a little adversity.
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