Rapid Recap: Jays lead Celtics to narrow victory in Pistons rematch

NBA: Boston Celtics at Detroit Pistons

A second consecutive loss to Detroit would’ve been disastrous after the Friday collapse. That’s almost what happened due to Boston’s defensive issues, but the Jays had other plans and forced a 122-120 victory.

Jaylen Brown led all scorers with 31 pointsβ€”not many other stats, but this was some of the most accurate shooting of his career (81.2%), so who cares. Jayson Tatum, while not shooting as efficiently, brought his playmaking to bear to contribute 12 assists alongside 24 points, 8 boards and 2 blocks. Four additional Celtics reached double figures in the shootout: Marcus Smart (17-3-9), Daniel Theis (15-4-1 and a steal), Tristan Thompson (12-11-1) and Semi Ojeleye (just 11 and a board, but off three triples). It’s a bit distressing that they needed this many points to repel a basement-dwelling Pistons team, but for now all the team can do is move on and hopefully learn.

Let’s go through it. Abby’s opening statement was not promising:

It’s true, the Celtics offense was crisp. Theis was canning long jumpers:

But they were letting Jerami Grant and Blake Griffin score almost at will (understandable) as well as the likes of Mason Plumlee, Josh Jackson and Derrick Rose’s corpse (not understandable).

In the midst of all this, Jaylen’s Next Leap continues unabated:

 

Payton Pritchard contributed significantly to the Q2 turnaround with strong effort on both ends of the floor:

Unsurprisingly, the definitive difference-makers were the Jays.

There were still blooper-reel-level mistakes happening:

But more good shit:

Things stayed close in Q3, with Boston barely maintaining a lead, mostly due toβ€”well, wouldn’t ya know it, Jaylen Brown!

As hard a time as Theis had defensively paired with Thompson, they both stayed making strong offensive contributions. Stevens ran plays for for one or both of them on consecutive possessions and the Pistons defense simply couldn’t figure it out:

But those defensive woes meant Detroit was always barking at Boston’s heels. It was clear some change had to be made, in either approach or effort (ideally both).

Good thing Tatum had 6+ assists:

And Ojeleye, not a factor for much of the contest, suddenly canned three consecutive triples:

But the Cs’ defensive woes and Pistons’ concurrent hot shooting meant Boston couldn’t nail down a definitive lead.

Further complications:

Somehow this game was tied, and everyone on Celtics Twitter was miserable:

https://twitter.com/MsSamanthaMay/status/1345854811934228482?s=20

In the end, it came down to the Pistons doing exactly what they should’ve done to defend against the Celtics, and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum beating them anyway.

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