Detroit Pistons surge in fourth quarter to beat Celtics 99-94
By Ricky LaBlue
The Detroit Pistons rallied back to win again the Boston Celtics.
18. 99. 64. Final. 94
Trailing by 13 points late in the third quarter, the Detroit Pistons looked lost. The team was lethargic and it looked like the Celtics would walk away with an easy win.
The Pistons had other ideas.
Thanks to a hot-shooting fourth quarter and a bunch of stops on the defensive end, Detroit came back in Boston to win 99-94, moving into seventh place in the Eastern Conference.
Detroit outscored Boston 33-19 in the fourth quarter shook off cold shooting to start the game to finish at 44.6 percent from the field. The Pistons also went 10-27 from beyond the arc, while Boston shot 6-28 from three.
The win moves Detroit to 20-16, and gives the Pistons a 2-1 edge over Boston in the season series. The two teams will play each other on Feb. 3 for the final time this season.
PG. Pistons. REGGIE JACKSON. B-. Reggie was efficient for the most part, even though the offense looked sluggish early on. 8-15 shooting and a team-high 24 points is nothing to scoff at. Isaiah Thomas did have a lot of success tonight, which hurts Reggie’s grade overall. However, Jackson played well down the stretch and helped Detroit close out Boston.
Caldwell-Pope not only had a great night offensively (20 points), he also kept Celtics guard Marcus Smart and Evan Turner in check. Turner did score 17 points, but Smart shot an abysmal 1-10 from the field. He was lights out tonight, but he turned in another solid performance.. SG. Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE. B+
D+. Morris didn’t do much tonight. He was nonexistent offensively and Jae Crowder was able to contribute 16 points on just 10 shots. Morris has definitely had better outings.. SF. Pistons. MARCUS MORRIS
Pistons. ANDRE DRUMMOND. C-. Drummond only played 21 minutes due to early foul trouble, but was able to make a couple nice buckets in the fourth to hold off Boston. Still, 13 points and five rebounds is well below expectations for Dre. Kelly Olynyk had mild success tonight, but Drummond should have had a better night.. C
Pistons. STANLEY JOHNSON. B. Johnson played well in the fourth quarter on both ends of the floor and also hit a big three. He got a bit more run than normal tonight (23 minutes) and took advantage of it, scoring 11 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Johnson shows enough on a nightly basis to justify being a high draft pick.. SF
B+. Baynes will never jump off the screen or be a flashy big man, but he does the things reserve big men are supposed to do. Drummond got into foul trouble and Baynes, along with Tolliver, were able to fill the void. six points and six rebounds may not sound like much, but that’s really all he needs to do. Baynes is one of my favorite players, mostly because he can always be counted on to do his job.. C. Pistons. ARON BAYNES
Pistons. ANTHONY TOLLIVER. B-. Tolliver attempted six threes, which is a bit more than I’d like, but he played solid defense tonight. Jonas Jerebko and Jared Sullinger didn’t do much tonight offensively, and Tolliver was on the floor as the Pistons made their comeback attempt early in the fourth quarter.. PF
PF. Pistons. ERSAN ILYASOVA. D+. Ilyasova was pretty irrelevant tonight. He didn’t provide much offensively and Amir Johnson schooled him offensively and on the glass. Definitely an off night for Ilyasova.
PG. Pistons. BRANDON JENNINGS. C+. Jennings didn’t have much in the box score to talk about, but he led the charge to start the fourth quarter. He did cough it up three times early on, but showed up when it counted.
Inc. Anthony just saw nine minutes tonight, mostly because Drummond was in foul trouble early on. Not enough to go off of to give Anthony a grade tonight.. C. Pistons. JOEL ANTHONY
STAN VAN GUNDY. B. Van Gundy has to take some blame for the sluggish performance for three quarters, but he also gets some credit for the fourth quarter surge. He kept Baynes in down the stretch as the Pistons tried to hold onto a slim lead, and it paid off. The bench did a good enough job when Drummond was forced to the bench, and Van Gundy was able to refocus his team in the fourth. This is a big win on the road against a deep Celtics team that will likely be in the playoffs.. Head Coach. Pistons