Despite the Boston Celtics’ League leading record the chatter prior to Wednesday night’s heavyweight battle against the Detroit Pistons was that the Celtics had not yet been truly tested. Many basketball analysts believed the Celtics’ meeting with the Pistons would be that test.
After their 87-85 defeat to the Pistons, suffering their first home loss in 13 games, it’s clear that the Celtics failed.
Or did they?
While the final score indicates that the Celtics fell a tab bit short of victory, the game revealed as much about the Pistons’ deficiencies as it did the Celtics. The game showed that it took the Pistons, who have a ring, the best starting five in the League and at least five years together as a unit, all they could muster to defeat a team, who only have 23 games as a unit under their belt.
The Celtics outrebounded, shot for a higher field percentage (49 percent to Detroit’s 40) blocked more shots, created more turnovers and handed out more assist than the Pistons. The Celtics lost their composure in the third quarter and much of the fourth due to the defensive intensity applied by the Pistons, but the Pistons’ victory was more a result of converting their 3’s and free-throws than anything else. The Pistons shot 45 percent from the arc and converted 20 of 23 free-throw attempts. In contrast, the Celtics shot 28.6 percent from the “3” and missed eight crucial free-throws.
The match-up was indeed an excellent barometer for the Celtics to measure their progress, but quiet as it is kept the game was also a scale for the Pistons to weigh how good they might be. It’s too early to suggest that the game was a statement game, but if it was the Pistons needed the victory more than the Celtics did.
For all the swagger often demonstrated by the Pistons (they consistently remind the NBA world that they’ve seen it all before) they have a well deserved reputation for not being able to get it done. They lost four consecutive games last year to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, and allowed that same Cavalier team, who hadn’t smelled the playoffs since 1998 prior to the 2006 season, to take them to a seventh game in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The Pistons were eventually defeated by Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. In 2003-04 season they lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals, and were swept by the New Jersey Nets during the 2002-03 in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Pistons are the best team in the Eastern Conference, but they better play more like champs because the contending Celtics are closing in.