Stop me if you’ve heard this one: The Detroit Pistons lost to the Boston Celtics.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is. The Celtics have now beaten the Pistons 12-straight times, their longest active losing streak, so you’d have to go back to 2022 to find a Detroit win over Boston.
The Pistons once again looked lethargic even after having four days off, and the game was essentially over after the first quarter.
The Celtics didn’t even have their best player, Jayson Tatum, not that it mattered, which has been a theme over the last few seasons, one that Jaylen Brown called out specifically last year, while speaking some brutal truths.
Jaylen Brown is 100% correct about the Detroit Pistons
In an interview last season, Brown talked about how the Celtics like to build the confidence of their role players by getting them big minutes and reps in regular season games.
He used the Pistons as a specific example of a team that they could rest against, play through their role guys and still get a win.
Brown spoke about Payton Pritchard “going for 30” and taking “ten 3’s” as a way to build up his confidence for games that actually matter.
Ha! Pritchard only had 27 points! And he took 15 from long range, not 10! Take that, Brown!
Pritchard, who is one of the early frontrunners for 6th Man of the Year, did exactly what Brown talked about last year, which is eviscerate the Pistons off the bench with much of the offense flowing through him.
We can talk about “improvement” all we want, but last night’s game showed just how far the Pistons are from being relevant in the Eastern Conference.
They are still a team opponents circle on the calendar as a potential rest night, or if you are a role player, a night when you can boost your individual stats.
The Pistons may be able to hang with the mediocre teams in the mediocre East, but many of the good teams can still soundly defeat them with their bench.
The Pistons are not good enough to go through the motions as they did for much of last night, and I am not sure there is a cure for a team that hasn’t figured this out yet.
Detroit had given up on this one about six minutes into the game, with Pritchard licking his chops on the bench knowing he was going to get a lot of shots up.
The Pistons don’t consistently play like a team trying to get back to respectability, and often look like one content to be a confidence booster for the Payton Pritchards of the league.
After a promising start, the Pistons have taken a nosedive over the last 12 games and are looking more like the team that won 14 games last season.
That top-13 protected draft pick in 2025 is looking more appealing by the day.