Boston Celtics
“My legs felt a little heavy, but I’ve got to make a play for my teammates.”
Jaylen Brown and the Celtics had a chance down the stretch, but they came up just short against the Pistons for the third time this season in a 104-103 loss.
Here are the takeaways.
Jaylen Brown was this close.
Other than the less-than-ideal fact that they were behind, the Celtics had a lot going for themselves on the final play of Monday’s game.
They were only down by one, which leaves no room for ambiguity about going for the win. They had a timeout. They had more than enough time to take a couple of dribbles and get a shot up.
And, of course, they have Jaylen Brown — an All-Star starter after Tuesday’s announcement, and one of the absolute best players in the league at getting to his spot and creating his own offense. Brown wasn’t having the most efficient game of his illustrious season (11-for-28 from the field, 2-for-8 from three), but he had 32 points and had just notched a layup and a floater as the Celtics worked their way to within two.
On the final possession, Brown looked like he tried to turn the corner against Tobias Harris, but the Pistons forward prevented Brown from getting to the rim. Instead, Brown took three dribbles to his right and fired up a fall-away jumper. It was a good look, and Brown created more than enough space to separate himself from Harris’ reaching fingertips.
Brown’s shot hit the back of the rim and ricocheted up in the air. It looked like it might have dropped in on its way back down if it hadn’t grazed the top of the backboard, which made it leap forward and brush off the front of the rim one more time before it fell to former Celtic Javonte Green, who swatted it away.
“It felt good,” Brown told reporters afterward. “My legs felt a little heavy, but I’ve got to make a play for my teammates.”
Brown labored a bit through Monday’s game — he once again spent quite a bit of time complaining to the officials about calls he felt he should have gotten, and he missed some shots he usually makes. He coughed up the ball four times against Detroit’s stalwart defense — the Pistons are the NBA’s second-best defense, with a massive gap between themselves and the Spurs at No. 3. Brown also missed a pair of free throws late in the fourth quarter that might haunt him a bit in a one-point loss.
Still, Brown defended a number of tough matchups including fellow All-Star starter Cade Cunningham, and with others struggling mightily on offense, Brown’s ability to attack, create, and hammer mismatches into a fine dust was the reason the Celtics had a chance to win.
Brown and Isaiah Stewart went at it again.
Brown and Isaiah Stewart got into a confusing altercation during the last showdown between these two teams — confusing not because Stewart got into an altercation (that’s his thing), but because Brown’s offer to fistfight Stewart did not look particularly serious, and he later told reporters he thinks Stewart is “a nice guy.”
Still, Brown and Stewart seem to rub each other the wrong way during games, which could be as simple as two high-level competitors trying as hard as they can to beat each other. Almost immediately, the duo picked up double technicals after Brown grabbed Stewart’s arm, and Stewart pushed Brown off aggressively, who responded by pushing Stewart off aggressively too.
That’s a long way of saying the double technicals were a little soft but probably deserved. Afterward, Stewart could be seen tapping the side of the head as if to remind himself to stay smart the rest of the way, and while Brown and Stewart administered some passive-aggressive (and under-the-radar) blows, nothing really got going.
We should note that it seems unlikely that the uneasy peace between Stewart and Brown would maintain itself in a playoff series.
Sam Hauser is completely back in rhythm.
Hauser had a really nice game once again — coming off his near-record-setting performance against the Hawks on Saturday, he scored 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting and put together a relatively solid defensive showing, despite picking up four fouls.
Future contests between the Celtics and Pistons (if there are any) could call for a little more Hauser on Tobias Harris, who proved himself simply too big against guards like Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, but Hauser might have the size and length to harass a player like Harris, who is talented at getting his shot off but not particularly speedy or shifty.
Offensively, Hauser went 4-for-7 from three, and he scored a pair of baskets inside the arc — one cutting layup, and one driving jumper on which he let Duncan Robinson fly by.
Hauser is a very streaky player, and he is currently on one of the heaters that he catches at various points throughout the season. The Celtics will hope it lasts, but if history bears itself out and he cools off at some point, the good news is they have players like Jordan Walsh and Hugo González who have proven themselves worthy of minutes.
Derrick White had a tough one.
The Celtics really needed more offense out of White, who took a lot of good shots but just couldn’t find the range. White was 1-for-11 from the field — his lone make was a baseline jumper in the third quarter that came just as the NBC announcers were commenting on his lack of scoring — and he missed all six of his 3-pointers.
White appeared bothered by Detroit’s tenacious defense. He did dish out a team-high five assists to go with nine rebounds, and a few of his shots were late in the shot clock, but he missed some open looks from three as well that would have been a big boost.
The Pistons are very physical.
The Pistons aren’t dirty — they are very big, very strong, and very willing to use their bodies defensively, which turned Monday’s game between two high-level playoff contenders into a heavyweight fight reminiscent of the playoff series that might unfold between them in a few months.
“You’ve got to give credit to them,” Brown said, and he sounded like he meant it. “They are extremely physical, and you feel it on every possession of the game.”
Brown added that he felt the Celtics matched that physicality, and the officiating would appear to back him up: The teams combined for 48 fouls — one foul per minute — and the game stretched on at times as players whacked, shoved, bumped, and reached. The Celtics shot 30 free throws to the Pistons’ 23, bolstered in part by technical fouls issued to J.B. Bickerstaff and Duncan Robinson.
For their part, the Celtics found themselves in foul trouble — most notably in the second half after Neemias Queta picked up his fourth, which sent him to the bench and prompted the Pistons to play a double-big lineup that gave the Celtics fits in Queta’s absence. If the Celtics hope to beat the Pistons in a playoff series, they will probably need to address their center needs to some degree.
The Jayson Tatum question
The Pistons have now beaten the Celtics three times out of four, and while every game has been close, they present a number of matchup issues that the Celtics would struggle with in the postseason. Fair questions could be asked about the Pistons’ lack of playoff experience, but questions could also be asked about the Celtics’ ability to deal with the Pistons’ size, as well as the concerning number of turnovers (14 to Detroit’s six) that they let slip on Monday.
But the biggest question will, of course, be whether Jayson Tatum is back, and how close he is to 100 percent. Tatum worked out in front of Celtics media on Tuesday, which was very clearly done on purpose and intended to generate a lot of buzz about his health status (which, of course, it did).
The Pistons appear to be better than the Celtics for the time being, and they are the only team in the Eastern Conference capable of saying that with any level of confidence.
Whether that remains the case if Tatum returns remains (hopefully) to be seen.
What’s next
The Celtics will head home very briefly for a game Wednesday against the Pacers before hitting the road Saturday and Sunday for road contests against the Nets and Bulls respectively. They will end the month with a four-game homestand.
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