How we see it goin' down: Celtics at Pistons

Tip: 6 PM Court: Palace of Auburn Hills Watch it: CSN Hear it: WEEI

Referees: Tom Washington, Brent Barnaky and Sean Wright

The Matchup


Record: 15-14 (2nd Atlantic, 7th East)	Record: 8-22 (5th Central, 11th East)
On road: 4-6	At home: 7-10
Streak: Lost 2	Streak: Won 2
Leaders	Leaders
Buckets: Pierce (17.3 ppg)	Buckets: Greg Monroe (16.2 ppg)
Boards: Garnett (7.8 rpg)	Boards: Monroe (9.7 rpg)
Dimes: Rondo (9.5 apg)	Dimes: Rodney Stuckey (4.1 apg)
For the Stat Geeks:	For the Stat Geeks:
Offensive Rating: 101.2 (23rd NBA)	Offensive Rating: 99.8 (25th NBA)
Defensive Rating: 98.3 (4th NBA)	Defensive Rating: 108.0 (27th NBA)
Pace: 88.4 (29th NBA)	Pace: 88.5 (28th NBA)

Last time

The season series is 1-1. Detroit won the last meeting, 98-88, thanks to a Celtics 4th quarter collapse. The Celtics won 96-85 on December 30th in a game which Jermaine O'Neal dominated.

This time

Get it to: Rajon Rondo

Rondo is averaging 20.6 points, 8.6 assists and 5.8 rebounds over the last 5 games. The Celtics are 1-4 in those games. I refuse to believe there's a connection between Rondo's aggressive play and the results (John proved as much with this post). I want Rajon to keep chuggin'.

Gotta stop: Greg Monroe

I think we've picked Monroe in all three Celtics/Pistons previews. It's simple. His strength (offensive rebounding) is the Celtics biggest weakness. His output in both games was 22 points and 9 rebounds. That's called consistency.

The Wild Card: Paul Pierce or Ray Allen

Studs like Paul Pierce and Ray Allen generally aren't wild cards, but the Celtics will need one of them to produce. Pierce has been playing like crap lately. He's been so bad, we are wondering if he's hurt. Ray is flat-out struggling. The Pistons are not a juggernaut. The Celtics should be able to win if one of these guys shows up.