Short-handed Celtics claim eighth straight win by blowing out Pistons: 8 takeaways
The Celtics are now tied with the 1970-71 and 1971-72 Bucks, as well as the 2015-16 Spurs with 15 wins of 25 points or more.
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The Celtics continued to roll Friday, demolishing the Pistons 129-102 in Detroit to open a six-game road trip.
Here are the takeaways.
1. The Celtics were without Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, and Al Horford, which might not have mattered against a fair number of NBA teams (the starting lineup of Payton Pritchard, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis and Xavier Tillman has a pretty absurd amount of talent given how much star power the Celtics were without), and it certainly didn’t matter against the Pistons, whose 12-58 record is nearly an inverse of the 56-14 Celtics.
Still, we would once again draw the attention of fans to the difference between this year and last year. Last year’s team struggled often against bad teams that, despite employing NBA players, should have been overmatched. This year’s team very rarely plays down to the level of its opponent – the loss to the short-handed Lakers earlier this year is one of the only games that stands out from that perspective – and they have done a phenomenal job of leaving no room for doubt against mediocre teams. That’s why they have an 11-game lead over the second-place Bucks. That’s why their magic number in the Eastern Conference is three on March 22. That’s why their net rating is an astounding +11.9 in non-garbage time minutes.
The Pistons are a bad team, which was also true last year. The Celtics are a very good team, which was also true last year. The biggest difference on nights like Friday is that this year, the Pistons didn’t stand a chance from about midway through the second quarter until the final buzzer.
2. Jaylen Brown had a pristine stat line – 33 highly efficient points on 13-for-19 shooting (3-for-8 from three) to go with four rebounds and four steals. He did not record an assist, but not for lack of trying – he found multiple teammates for good looks who simply missed, including one particularly nice dish to Sam Hauser as the third quarter wound down.
“He’s just seeing great stuff,” Joe Mazzulla told reporters afterward. “I love just the way he’s carried himself out there on the court. He’s processing each and every possession on both ends of the floor, he’s taking the shots that he wants, he’s making plays for himself and for his teammates. It’s been an honor to coach him. He’s just been playing well-rounded basketball at both ends.”
3. Derrick White came up two rebounds short of another triple-double after recording the first one of his career against the Pistons earlier this week. On Friday, he scored 19 points to go with eight rebounds and 11 assists. Late in the fourth quarter, shortly before he and the rest of the subs were pulled from the game, White failed to box out James Wiseman and allowed an offensive rebound. Afterward, as the Celtics went to the bench for a timeout, he could be seen shaking his head in frustration.
Has White developed a taste for triple-doubles, despite his assertion that he didn’t enjoy stat-hunting on Monday? Time will tell (but probably not).
4. Payton Pritchard is going to prompt some interesting offseason conversations among Celtics fans soon (if he hasn’t already). In extended minutes over the last few weeks, he has shown a proclivity for both scoring and distributing at a level that far exceeds the fringe rotation role he played for much of the last two seasons. That continued on Friday with 20 points (8-for-15, 4-for-9 from behind the arc) and nine assists.
Much of what Pritchard does seems to be despite his size. He’s a solid offensive rebounder despite his size. He’s a good defender despite his size. He’s an impressive finisher in the paint despite his size. The fact that some of his size-appropriate point-guard skills are starting to show up at the NBA level is intriguing.
The only problem? The Celtics are unbelievably stacked at guard. Derrick White probably could have been an All-Star. Jrue Holiday is the NBA’s best (and most overqualified) corner 3-point shooter. Pritchard has earned playoff minutes, but it remains to be seen how many will even be available for him.
What the Celtics do about their logjam at point guard over the summer remains to be seen, but it is at the very least worth raising an eyebrow at how well Pritchard continues to play as the Celtics rest their starting guards and what that might mean for the rotation when the second apron starts to crunch the team’s big contracts.
After the playoffs, of course. The offseason is still, one would assume, a very long way away.
5. Holiday, incidentally, told the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach that he has been dealing with a dead arm after a collision trying to navigate a screen against the Wizards. He said he wants to return as soon as possible, and Mazzulla said he is making gradual progress, but the Celtics – of course – have no reason to rush him back and certainly will not do so for nearly meaningless games against teams like the Pistons (and Bulls).
6. Sam Hauser, meanwhile, returned to the floor against the Pistons after spraining his ankle painfully during his 3-point barrage against the Wizards. He finished with 14 points, including 4-for-11 shooting from behind the arc.
7. NBC Sports Boston’s statistician Dick Lipe noted that the Celtics are now tied with the 1970-71 and 1971-72 Bucks, as well as the 2015-16 Spurs with 15 wins of 25 points or more. Once again, it is March 22.
8. The Celtics, who have now won eight in a row, are at the beginning of a season-long six-game road trip. A six-game road trip is outlier length, especially given that they have two days off in between back-to-back matchups with the Hawks in Atlanta. The NBA’s schedule makers left the Celtics with an easy-but-quirky schedule down the stretch, which – along with Boston’s massive lead in the standings – will give Mazzulla the unique challenge of balancing rest with a playoff ramp-up in games that have little bearing on anything.
Next up: The Celtics will take on the Bulls in Chicago on Saturday evening. The game tips off at 8 p.m.
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