It didn’t take long for the Boston Celtics to face adversity for the first time as reigning champions. But it was a surprise it came from the Detroit Pistons during Saturday night’s 124-118 victory at Little Caesar’s Arena.
The Pistons gave the Celtics a tiring run for their money from start to finish, making the final minutes of the final frame a must-watch stretch of basketball. Boston didn’t show up in the same fashion as it did to open up the year against the New York Knicks and the Washington Wizards, but in embracing the uncomfortable — a major component of head coach Joe Mazzulla’s open-minded philosophy — Boston managed to come away with its first nail-bitter, thus far, unscathed.
Here are three studs and three duds from the third straight Celtics win:
STUDS
Jayson Tatum
The vengeance tour continued for Tatum, only this time the 26-year-old needed to play in the fourth quarter. Tatum finished with a game-leading 37 points on 12-of-26 shooting with four rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in 38 minutes. He sunk 6-of-13 attempts from 3-point territory and is now up to 99 points in three games, further strengthening a (very) premature MVP candidacy case.
Boston’s first-quarter head start
The Celtics haven’t just been good to begin their first three of the season, they’ve been historically good.
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Boston’s 42-point first quarter in Detroit increased the team’s point total to 118 points combined across their first quarters played this season, which set an NBA record. The Celtics shot 12-for-22, including 8-for-14 from 3-point range to apply pressure early on the Pistons, who last season finished with the worst record (14-68) in the NBA. The previous first-quarter scoring record — 114 points — was previously set by the Golden State Warriors in 1991-92.
Payton Pritchard
The scrappy undersized guard must’ve been eager to get shots up in Detroit because it didn’t take long for Pritchard to give the Pistons problems off the bench. Pritchard scored 16 points in his first eight minutes before finishing the night with 19 points and five 3-pointers drained in 19 minutes. Pritchard also tallied two rebounds and a steal.
The Grand Rapids, Mich., native and Michigan State product pitched in off the bench with three points, three rebounds, one assist and two steals in front of his hometown crowd. Tillman’s only bucket, a go-ahead 3-pointer, gave Boston a 91-88 lead in the third quarter.
DUDS
Jrue Holiday
Once again, Holiday struggled severely to get going offensively.
Holiday scored just seven points — granted, clutch points — in 33 minutes, but his first basket didn’t come until the fourth quarter. He notched four assists and a rebound to help make up for the lack of offensive contribution but also committed a team-high three turnovers, leaving the 34-year-old with a modest 10.6-point scoring average to begin the year.
Boston’s interior offense
Expecting the Celtics to shoot 48% from three while chasing the all-time record for threes made each night is an unrealistic expectation, therefore, establishing scoring versatility when the three isn’t falling is essential.
Boston struggled to accomplish just that for the first time, so far. The Celtics (45.8%) outshot the Pistons (35.9%) from beyond the arc but the margin wasn’t enough to keep Detroit at bay in the third quarter when scoring became increasingly difficult as each possession came and went for Boston. Detroit’s 16-3 run with 3:50 to go in the third quarter evened up the score at, 86-86. A major cause of the diminished lead? Boston’s 22 points in the paint versus Detroit’s 50 heading into the fourth quarter.
Still, it’s much too early to label anything a concern, especially without Kristaps Porzingis.
Cade Cunningham
Detroit can always count on Cunningham to be a scoring leader as the 23-year-old dropped a solid 21 points against the Celtics, but ball security was a glaring issue. Cunningham committed a game-high seven turnovers, which flirted with the fourth-year guard’s career-high mark of nine (recorded in 2022). It also proved to be costly once Boston turned up its defensive pressure and Celtics guard Derrick White unleashed the menace within him, especially at the rim to stiff-arm Detroit’s last-second desperation bid.
