Experimentation continued in Detroit with Jayson Tatum and Al Horford resting while Jrue Holiday nursed an arm ailment. Small ball built a 20-point advantage, the 16th over Boston’s last 18 games, according to Sean Grande, while double-big looks slammed the door. The Celtics won, 129-102, for their eighth straight win poised to clinch the east’s top seed before the end of the month. Their 15th win by 25 points set an NBA record.
James Wiseman pressured the Celtics early in a spot start in place of late scratch Jalen Duren opposite of Xavier Tillman Sr., who made his first appearance in Boston’s starting lineup next to Kristaps Porzingis. Payton Pritchard earned the fifth spot to continue his recent hot stretch. While Pritchard poured in his first attempt from deep following an offensive rebound Wiseman scored eight points in fewer than four minutes.
“I had a few more turnovers than I would’ve liked tonight,” Brown told reporters in Detroit. “Most of them came trying to get guys the ball though. I tried to get K.P. the ball a couple times. I tried to get guys involved off the over-help and I’m ok with that, but just overall, seeing and reading the game, making plays and felt good tonight. Just letting it fly. You see a guy guarding you a certain way, go into your natural motion and just shoot the ball, try to take too much of the thought process out of it and just be who you are. I work on my mechanics all the time, on my details all the time and you’ve just gotta trust yourself.”
Jaylen Brown responded to his two early turnovers with back-to-back baskets before Pritchard pushed the pace with a pair of assists to keep pace with Detroit’s early scoring. The double-big look slowed Boston down though, and after pulling Tillman once Wiseman reached 12 points, the Celtics moved toward smaller looks later in the half that included Sam Hauser, back from missing two games with his ankle injury, Oshae Brissett and Svi Mykhailiuk at the four. Boston took a brief lead behind another Brown outburst, but three straight Pistons threes from Marcus Sasser and Troy Brown Jr. secured a 34-32 lead after one.
Pritchard capped the opening frame by creating a three with the four seconds Detroit left him on the clock, then he hit Hauser for three and his own fifth assist two plays into the second quarter. The Celtics scored on their next three possessions to maintain a two-point lead against Sasser and Brown Jr.’s continued onslaught. Back-to-back three point finishes inside by Mykhailiuk and Derrick White finally expanded that lead, and five straight minutes of scoreless defense behind them allowed the run to reach 10-0 and build a nine-point lead. Threes by Hauser, Brissett and Pritchard doubled that advantage to 18 as Pritchard reached 16 points with the Celtics up 69-53 at halftime.
Brown continued his streak of scoring 20 points in each game since the break into the third, when a 6-0 push propelled the Celtics ahead by 21 points. Porzingis scored seven points inside and out, expanding that advantage to as many as 26. Tosan Evbuomwan helped the Pistons sneak within 19 before the end of the third, but not any closer as Brown scored nine of Boston’s final 12 points in the frame to reach 33.
White reached eight assists for the third consecutive game early in the fourth with an alley-oop to Luke Kornet, then hit a three minutes later to help Pritchard reach nine. Kornet fed him back for a cutting make, then he found Tillman underneath for his first points as he shuffled into more second half double big units after not playing in the second quarter. Back-to-back Porzingis turnarounds gave White an easy 11 assists — the seventh time he’s reached that mark in his career.
“(This time of year), you want to listen to the training staff, listen to the front office, listen to the coaching staff, also listen to your body,” Brown said. “Going with the flow. Whatever the team needs. It’s a great opportunity for our guys to grow confidence in their roles, get some good reps going into the playoffs, because we’re gonna need everybody going into the playoffs, because we’re gonna need everybody on this team, so giving guys some opportunity that they might not normally get, I think that can help our team. It’s a balance. We’re still trying to win games. We’re not trying to skip steps or taking our foot off the gas … people like Payton, Sam are beneficiaries of that.”
