Celtics blow 23-point lead but survive Pistons upset bid to stay unbeaten

The Boston Celtics won 16 playoff games during their championship run this summer. The Pistons won 14 games during the entire 2023-24 NBA season.

On Saturday night, that didn’t matter.

Detroit, of all teams, gave Boston the first true test of its nascent title defense, pushing the reigning champs to the brink at Little Caesars Arena. The Celtics squandered a 23-point lead and trailed with less than three minutes remaining before rallying to win 124-118 and remain undefeated on the young season.

Jayson Tatum paced Boston with 37 points on 12-for-26 shooting, including 6 for 13 from 3-point range. Co-star Jaylen Brown struggled to find his shot (6 for 24) but grabbed five fourth-quarter rebounds and was 9 for 10 from the free-throw line, with the final two of his 22 points icing the game in the final minute.

Jrue Holiday, uncharacteristically ineffective for much of the night, stepped up late with back-to-back 3-pointers that erased a six-point Boston deficit, followed by a clutch block. Derrick White also blocked two shots in the final six minutes, including one to deny a Cade Cunningham dunk with 50 seconds remaining and the Celtics up two.

The six-point margin of victory was by far the smallest of the season for the Celtics, who won their first two games by 23 and 20.

“(I liked) our poise,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters postgame. “Down six, we got stops, executed, got Jrue two wide-open shots because of our execution. … It’s good for your first close game to be able to execute situational stuff like that.”

Boston had its hands full with Detroit’s talented young duo of Cunningham and Jaden Ivey.

Tatum has been borderline unstoppable in the first quarter this season, and he continued that trend Saturday, pouring in 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting in the opening frame (4 of 6 from three). He did most of his damage along the perimeter but added a rim-rattling two-handed dunk over Tim Hardaway Jr., which came off a nice backdoor feed from center Luke Kornet.

It mirrored Tatum’s first-quarter scoring outputs against the New York Knicks (15 points) and Washington Wizards (14). His totals thus far in the opening 12 minutes: 46 points, 64.0% field-goal percentage, 61.5% from 3-point range.

The Celtics as a team have been similarly dominant early in games. Their 118 first-quarter points are the most through three games in NBA history, breaking the previous record of 114 set by the 1991-92 Golden State Warriors.

Boston stretched its lead to 23 points in the second quarter, its unceasing drumbeat of threes threatening to bury the underdog Pistons. By the time Detroit made its fifth 3-pointer of the game with 5:25 left in the half, three different Celtics players already had hit four or more: Tatum, Al Horford and Payton Pritchard.

Pritchard nearly made good on Brown’s media day boast that the Celtics are so deep they can “play through Payton” against struggling teams like the Pistons and “let him go for 30.” The backup guard scored 16 points in the first 15 minutes but just three the rest of the way.

Horford’s 17 first-half points — including five threes on eight attempts — were more than Boston’s veteran big man tallied in the first two games combined (11). He did not score in the second half but was a team-best plus-21 in the win.

The Pistons didn’t cave, though. Led by Ivey, they reeled off an 11-0 run and went into halftime down 73-62. Detroit then controlled the third quarter, erasing the double-digit deficit and taking its first lead of the game on an Isaiah Stewart tip-in that made it 88-86.

The Pistons outscored the Celtics 56-28 in the paint and 21-5 in transition — similar marks to what the Wizards posted in the first half of their game against Boston before fading down the stretch.

“I think their physicality dictated the pace of the second half on both ends,” Mazzulla told reporters.

Boston’s offense, so lethal early, looked disjointed and lacked its usual fluidity as the Pistons roared back. The Celtics went more than seven minutes without a made field goal and 9:44 without one from a player other than White, who had three quick buckets early in the third quarter after being held scoreless for most of the first half.

Xavier Tillman ended that drought with a 3-pointer with 62 seconds remaining in the corner, with Tatum hitting one from a similar spot the next time down the floor. The Celtics led entering the fourth quarter, but by just one, 94-93. They led by 25-plus after three quarters in each of their first two games.

Another clutch play by Tillman gave the Celtics a bit of cushion early in the fourth. The reserve big grabbed an offensive rebound off a Brown miss and fed a pass to Pritchard, who drilled a corner three to put Boston up three.

But again, Detroit rallied. Clutch shots by bench players Malik Beasley and Simone Fontecchio helped the Pistons take a four-point lead, which Cunningham extended to six with a driving layup with 5:12 remaining. But the Pistons converted just one field goal in the last five minutes, and winning plays by Holiday, White and Brown helped Boston escape with a win and a 3-0 record.

“At the end of the day, we won, but we can get better,” Mazzulla told reporters. “That’s good to have that taste in your mouth: the idea that we won but the idea that we have to get better.”

The Celtics will return to TD Garden on Monday to host the Milwaukee Bucks.

Hauser ‘day by day’

Bench sharpshooter Sam Hauser missed his second straight game with lower back pain. Mazzulla said Hauser returned to Boston before the rest of the team to rehab the injury.

“He’s doing pretty well,” Mazzulla told reporters pregame. “He went back. Just rehabbing, getting better. Just getting better every day. … He’s just day by day, see how he feels.”

Hauser missed just three games last season and two in 2022-23. He told reporters earlier in the week that he dealt with back pain throughout the summer and that it “flared up” after Boston’s season-opening win over New York. Hauser played 24 minutes in that game, scoring 10 points with five rebounds.

In Thursday’s win over Washington, Mazzulla replaced Hauser with center Neemias Queta and played more double-big lineups. On Saturday, he tightened his rotation, sitting Queta and only using Kornet, Pritchard and Tillman off the bench.

Maine sets roster

The Maine Celtics released their training camp roster on Saturday, and there was one notable exclusion: Lonnie Walker IV.

Walker, who tried out for Boston’s roster this preseason but failed to make the cut, was told when he signed that he could see time with the Celtics’ G League affiliate. Maine still could add the veteran wing to its roster before it opens its season on Nov. 8.

Per the terms of his Exhibit 10 contract, the 25-year-old Walker would receive a bonus if he plays a certain number of games in the NBA’s farm circuit.

The bulk of Maine’s initial roster consists of players who were with the team last season and/or spent training camp with the Celtics, including two-way players JD Davison, Drew Peterson and Anton Watson. It also includes three 2024 G League Draft picks: guards Eric Gaines and London Johnson and center Kavion Pippen (nephew of Scottie).

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