DETROIT — The Detroit Pistons tightened their hold on first place in the Eastern Conference Monday night, surviving a final-second miss by Jaylen Brown to beat the Boston Celtics 104-103 at Little Caesars Arena.
Brown, selected earlier in the day as a first-time All-Star starter alongside Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, scored a game-high 32 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. His pull-up jumper over Tobias Harris with 2.4 seconds left struck the back rim, allowing Detroit to push its conference lead to 5½ games.
Harris steps up at both ends
Harris paced the Pistons with 25 points — his second-largest output of the season — and defended Brown on the decisive possession. Detroit also got five three-pointers from Duncan Robinson and three more from Harris while limiting Boston to 13-for-41 shooting beyond the arc.
Cunningham distributes
Playing through a lingering wrist injury, Cunningham shot 4-for-17 but finished with 16 points, 14 assists and no turnovers. He led all Eastern Conference players in the All-Star player vote announced earlier Monday.
“You want respect from your peers,” Cunningham said. “Being the number-one team in the East, we have to find ways to get wins, and tonight we did.”
Defensive grind
Detroit, ranked second in the league in defensive efficiency, held Boston to 21 fourth-quarter points. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff called the matchup “a great experience for our guys” as the Pistons improved to 99.5 points allowed per 100 possessions in January, eight points better than league-leading Oklahoma City.
Brown went 11-for-28 from the field under constant pressure from Harris, Cunningham, Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland II. Even so, he scored twice in the final 90 seconds to give Boston a chance to steal the game.
Series history and injury note
The teams had split their first three meetings, with Boston snapping Detroit’s franchise-record 13-game winning streak on Nov. 26. The Celtics played again without Jayson Tatum, still recovering from Achilles surgery last May. Videos of Tatum dunking during Monday’s shootaround surfaced online, but head coach Joe Mazzulla declined to discuss a timetable, saying, “I failed medical school.”
“To be at the top of someone’s scouting report offensively and still guard the other team’s best player, I respect that,” Cunningham said of Brown’s two-way effort.
The Pistons (36-10) will host the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, while the Celtics (30-16) return to Boston to face the Miami Heat.
Source: ESPN
