Detroit Pistons outmuscle Boston Celtics for 98 – 88 win – NBA Recap
The Detroit Pistons used a strong team performance to outperform the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night. Pistons played well and silenced the TD Garden in the final quarter, cruising past the Celtics for a 98 – 88 win.
The Pistons, who after a slow start have suddenly started to deliver the results, relied on good team work and almost everyone contributed in the win.
Rodney Stuckey scored a team high 25 points. Young centre Greg Monroe was in impressive form again, netting 22 and grabbing 9 rebounds. Ben Gordon came off the bench for 22 points as well while Tayshaun Prince had 10.
"I really thought it was a total team win. There were so many things that went on throughout the game, we got great production from everybody who played in the game." Detroit head coach Lawrence Frank, who left the C's as an assistant to Doc Rivers, only in the pre-season enthused after the game.
The Celtics suffered a setback as Kevin Garnett was ruled out of the game with an injury. Additional responsibility thus fell on the shoulders of star point guard Rajon Rondo.
Rondo responded with 35 points, the game high, and 6 assists, but it wasn’t enough.
None of his teammates truly gave Rajon the support he required. Chris Wilcox had 17 points but Paul Pierce and Ray Allen were disappointing with 10 apiece.
The Pistons started off the stronger, with a 10 – 3 run. The Celtics however, slowly chipped away at the deficit and in the end had the upper hand in the first quarter. A 10 – 0 run initially gave them the lead and they finished just ahead at 28 – 26.
The second was a very even affair. The pace was slower and the teams found it harder to score. Both scored 21 points apiece, meaning that Boston held on to their narrow lead going into the halftime break 49 – 47.
The Pistons were able to assert themselves a little more after the interval. The away side hung on throughout the 3rd quarter as the Celtics tried to pull away. Then, with the segment nearing its end, Detroit used an 8 – 2 burst to finish ahead.
Pistons then turned the game on its head with an early 9 – 0 burst in the penultimate period that put them up at 87 - 76. A 6 – 2 spurt afterwards put them in control, ahead by double digits. Boston never recovered and the game petered out to a close at 98 – 88.
After the game Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers rued the mistakes made and said the loss was typical of the up and down NBA season they have had so far.
"It's going to be up and down and you know every time it looks like we're about to take off and play well we do this. And I'm hoping at some point this year it'll keep doing this and then we'll take off. But we haven't done that. There are signs that we can, but we just haven't followed through on it."
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