The Boston Celtics may have been without Jaylen Brown for their Wednesday night contest against the surging Detroit Pistons, but they still had all the tools at their disposal to be the team that puts an end to Detroit’s nirvana. But the Celtics simply could not get much going, playing from behind for most of the game, and in the end, they fell to the much-youthful Pistons, 117-97, much to the delight of Pistons fans who have been so desperate to see their team thrive like this after a 14-win 2023-24 campaign.
For a Celtics team that prides itself on excellent two-way play and a style of basketball tailor-made for today’s pace-and-space NBA, Wednesday night was a showcase of how things can go wrong for them when they fail to get into an inside-out rhythm. In particular, Kristaps Porzingis was almost invisible on a night when Boston needed his contributions, scoring just 11 points on 4-11 shooting and having an overall lackluster game.
Porzingis himself knows that he played at a level on Wednesday night that was so far from his usual excellent play on both ends of the court.
“I was terrible tonight,” Porzingis admitted, per Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.
From the first quarter onwards, not much went right for the Celtics big man. He didn’t look as mobile as usual, which is a bit understandable considering that he was questionable heading into the night as he continues to deal with an illness.
But at the very least, the first step to self-improvement is self-awareness. While the kind of defeatist self-talk rarely helps anyone, this just shows how high of a standard Porzingis has for himself, which implies that he’ll be working hard to reach that level for the Celtics heading into the final month or so of the regular season.
Celtics get thoroughly outplayed by the Pistons
The Celtics may have made it rain from beyond the arc on Wednesday, scoring 63 of their 97 points on the night off of 49 three-point attempts, but that was the only thing that went close to being right for them against the Pistons. They went 12-31 on two-pointers, turned the ball over five more times than the Pistons did, and they got crushed on the glass 51-32.
Just to make matters worse, the Celtics allowed 62 paint points for the Pistons and they got outscored by 21 in transition (29-8), as pointed out by Zack Cox of the Boston Herald. The interior defense being shaky certainly reflects back on Porzingis’ efforts, so it’s not too hard to see why he’s being that hard on himself after the loss.
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