Fourth quarter surge falls short as Detroit Pistons lose to Boston Celtics
By Ricky LaBlue
The Detroit Pistons made a valiant comeback attempt, but fell to the Celtics 102- 95.
64. Final. 102. 18. 95
The Pistons’ first half performance was one of the more frustrating of the season. The Celtics took an 11 point lead after the first quarter, one night after playing the Raptors on the road. Detroit was able to cut the lead to 12 midway through the third quarter, but the Celtics’ bench ballooned the lead to 18 entering the fourth. However, the Pistons cut the lead to 97-90 with 1:59 left after a 12-3 run. Detroit’s offense would then sputter, as Boston’s Marcus Smart hit a three to expand the lead to 10 with 58 seconds left. The loss means that Detroit will split the season series with the Celtics. Detroit is now just 26-24 and is dangerously close to falling out of the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference.
REGGIE JACKSON. C+. This definitely wasn’t Reggie’s best performance, but he wasn’t bad either. He was 5-8 from the floor and dished out seven assists. He did commit three turnovers though and didn’t attack the basket as much as you would like. He only attempted four free throws and six of his shot attempts were three pointers.. PG. Pistons
Inc. Caldwell left the game in the second quarter after slipping on a wet spot on the court. The official word is a groin strain but the severity of the injury is unknown. In just 16 minutes, Caldwell-Pope shot just 2-6 and turned it over twice. Not a very good sample, but grading him wouldn’t be fair.. SG. Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE
MARCUS MORRIS. C. Morris has on and off nights, and tonight was one of the off nights. Morris shot Just 4-17 from the floor, but did grab seven rebounds. Morris didn’t really jump off my screen tonight. He scored 15 points but his performance seemed rather pedestrian. Morris has to be more efficient with the ball on offense.. SF. Pistons
B. Ilyasova was one of the better Pistons tonight. Unfortunately he only logged 26 minutes. He was efficient from the floor and contributed to some solid defense in the second half. Amir Johnson, Jonas Jerebko and Kelly Olynyk all seemed to struggle tonight offensively, and Ilyasova is a part of that. He’s not a pretty player, but he’s usually effective.. PF. Pistons. ERSAN ILYASOVA
B. I expected to see more from Drummond this evening, but his performance was still solid. He scored 16 points and grabbed 13 rebounds and was efficient from the floor. He was also 4-6 from the free throw line but didn’t do a whole lot to slow down Jared Sullinger. In games like these, Drummond should really own the paint on both ends of the floor but he just didn’t do that tonight. Still, a decent performance.. C. Pistons. ANDRE DRUMMOND
C-. Johnson was overly inefficient tonight. He was 4-13 from the floor and attempted 10 threes. He did record nine rebounds in 30 minutes but was average defensively. If Caldwell-Pope is going to miss any games, Johnson is going to have to defer a bit more on offense.. SF. Pistons. STANLEY JOHNSON
D. Jennings played 20 minutes and had the worst plus/minus on the team with -14. Unfortunately, that’s pretty indicative of his performance tonight. I thought he, along with Stanley Johnson, got very trigger happy in the third quarter when the Celtics boosted their lead. Jennings is a talented player, but he has to cool it down sometimes. He’s also at some fault for the fact that Marcus Smart and Evan Turner combined for 28 points.. PG. Pistons. BRANDON JENNINGS
C+. Baynes didn’t do much in the box score, but I thought his play in the fourth quarter was pretty good. Baynes is very important for this team at the end of games, when Drummond gets subbed out. Baynes helped lead the charge in the fourth quarter to make this game competitive.. C. Pistons. ARON BAYNES
D. It feels like every time I write a review for a game, Tolliver struggles. He shot just 1-4 tonight and turned it over twice in 18 minutes as a guy who rarely handles the ball. As the back=stretch four, Tolliver has to hit some shots off the bench.. PF. Pistons. ANTHONY TOLLIVER
B. Hilliard filled in well off the bench with Caldwell-Pope out of the game. He only took three shots and made two of them. Even if Caldwell-Pope is healthy, I would still like to see Hilliard get consistent minutes off the bench.. SG. Pistons. DARRUN HILLIARD II
C-. Van Gundy has to take some of the blame as the Pistons came out flat against a team on the second night of a back to back. He also gets some credit as the Pistons fought back in the fourth quarter. I think it was smart that he allowed Hilliard to stay in the game late in the fourth but would’ve like to see Ilyasova get more minutes off the bench. Also, he needed to find a way to keep Stanley from taking 13 shots while Drummond and Jackson took 11 and nine shots respectively.. Head Coach. Pistons. STAN VAN GUNDY