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Tatum scores 31, Celtics beat Pistons for 4th straight win


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Jaylen Brown throws down powerful slamJaylen Brown makes a great effort to get to the bucket and throw down the slam dunk for the Celtics.

BOSTON -- — Jayson Tatum had 31 points and five assists, and the Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons 128-112 on Wednesday night to earn their fourth straight victory.

Jaylen Brown had 30 points and seven rebounds. Sam Hauser added a career-high 24 points off the bench for Boston, which hasn’t scored fewer than 109 points in each of its wins this season.

“Little by little I'm earning more trust from (Celtics interim coach) Joe (Mazzulla)," Hauser said. “I've still got to keep doing things to earn minutes out there and earning a spot in the rotation.”

After scoring just five points during a quiet first half, Tatum had 16 points in the first five minutes in the third quarter on his way to 26 in the second half to help the Celtics take control.

He also got his teammates involved, at one point flipping a behind-the-back pass to Al Horford for a corner 3-pointer as Boston built as much as a 16-point advantage in the period. The Celtics led by 24 in the fourth.

Mazzulla was proudest of how his team played defensively, limiting Detroit to 42% from the field (37 of 89) and 21% (7 of 33) from 3.

“When your best players want to play defense, it gives you a chance," Mazzulla said.

Jaden Ivey had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Pistons, who have lost four of five. Saddiq Bey added 18 points and Bojan Bogdanovic finished with 17.

Cade Cunningham was 1 of 11 from the field and finished with a season low four points. It was the first time this season he’s failed to reach double figures. He was averaging a team-best 21.4 points per game.

“They were into him and didn't allow him to get to his sweet spot,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said. “Did a good job of switching onto him, challenging his shot — just making it tough on him. It was just one of those nights that you have. He couldn't buy a bucket.”

TIP-INS

Pistons: Casey left open the possibility Alec Burks (left knee) could make his season debut against the Knicks on Friday. … Wednesday began a stretch that will see Detroit play 8 of its next 10 on the road.

Celtics: Malcolm Brogdon left the game with right hamstring tightness and did not play in the second half. … Marcus Smart had 11 assists. He has 33 in the past three games. ... C Luke Kornet was active after missing Boston’s win at Memphis on Monday following the birth of his second child. … Wednesday marked the two-year anniversary of Hall of Famer Tommy Heinsohn’s passing.

EARLY ACTION

The Celtics entered the night with the NBA’s top offensive rating and came out firing, hitting 4 of their first 6 shots as they sprinted out to a 10-2 lead.


Detroit had open looks early on but missed its first six shots on its way to shooting 7 of 30 (2 of 12 from the 3-point line) in the opening quarter.

The Pistons stayed close thanks to the Celtics squandering some opportunities with turnovers. .

Boston found a rhythm in the second quarter, shooting 70% (14 of 20) and 4 of 8 from beyond the arc to take a 63-49 lead into the half.

UP NEXT

Pistons: At New York Knicks on Friday.

Celtics: Host Denver Nuggets on Friday.

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Didn't watch the game, I went to a concert instead.  I'll watch the highlight films but we all know those will only show the good stuff.  Maybe I'll try and find some Detroit highlight films.  Those will show me where we weren't quite as good.

When you've got 2 players 30+, and a 3rd one with 24, you're going to win a lot of games.  If Brogdon had played more minutes he'd have been in double digits too, since he left with 9 in just 14 minutes.

A Sam Hauser podium game.  With all due respect to the Js, we expect them to excel.  Who expects a player who was thought to be our 13th man this year scoring a career high 24 points on 9-15 and 6-12 from 3 to be a killer?  One of the things I like about this game is that he took 3 of his 15 fgas inside the arc and was 3-3 on them.  Grant is just now starting to take his man off the dribble when they overplay him on the 3, Sam is already starting to do that.

Sam is now 6th in the league in 3pt fg%.  #1 Josh Green only has 17 3pt fgas.  #2 Yuta Watanabe only has 22 3pt fgas.  #5 Brandon Ingram only has 24 3pt fgas.  Sam has 45.  A cold spell for either of those 3 contenders will drop them in the rankings because they haven't taken many.

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
yesterday
Sam Hauser on defending the team's other dominant scorer, Jayson Tatum, in practice: He's hard to guard, obviously...I hope I give him a challenge chasing me around the 3-point line as well. It's an iron sharpens iron situation.

John Karalis @John_Karalis
yesterday
Mazzulla asks what Hauser has done this season to earn plays being drawn up for him. "Not miss"




.
Jay King @ByJayKing
yesterday
Grant Williams guarded Ja Morant last game, Cade Cunningham tonight and will probably defend Jokic on Friday. Al Horford: “Grant can guard anybody.”

Cade Cunningham was averaging > 20ppg entering last night.  He had 4 points on 1-11, 0-6 from 3 last night.

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
yesterday
Marcus Smart with a 34:4 assist-to-turnover ratio over the last three games. Pretty phenomenal stretch for him after uneven start to season.

Smart with another 11 last night.


46 3pt fgas out of 88 total fgas.  It's the Mazzulla Way and I'm just going to have to get used to it, at least until RWill comes back and then we'll see.  The Celtics lead the league in 3pt fgas with 40.8/game (reigning Champions GSW is #2 with 40.7).  We are in 4th place in 3pt fg% at 38.8%.  What surprises me a bit is that, despite such a high % of our fgas being 3s we are still 10th in ftas/game.  What alarms me is that we are 23rd in fgas/game.  If our 3pt fg% drops later in the season because of creeping fatigue and our fgas/game is that low we will have a problem.  Oh well, worry about that when it happens, huh, but 23rd?  Really?  As uptempo as Joe has had them playing we're not getting more fgas?  We won the fast break points contest last night 13-5.  Those are easy fgm.

Another season-to-date stat:  we are 27th in offensive rebounding and 22nd in total rebounds.  The gap between 22 and 10 is 5 rebounds/game.  That's a lot.    

We're tied for 11th in blocks/game.  That's without one of the top shot blockers in the league.  I like this stat.  The gap between 11th and 5th is .6 blocks/game.  RWill's got that in a half.  Hurry back, kid, just not too quickly.  

We're #14 in 3pt fg% defense and 7th in 3pt fgas.  This is what's fueling our 8-3 record.  We're 13th in Offensive Rebounds allowed.  Better than I thought, to be honest.  

The Boston Celtics are now #1 in NBA history in points/possession @ 1.185 points/possession.  #2 was the 2021 Brooklyn Nets @ 1.183.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468318


Bob


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The Celtics took care of business as expected and in doing so are now 8-3 in this young season.  

All things considered, that is a great start.

I am curious about the change in our starting lineup (Grant in and Derrick out)  We have a 2 game sample and probably not enough to make any judgment.  Any thoughts on that?

Sam Hauser scored a career high 24 points last night on the strength of his torrid 3 point shooting (6-12)  CJ is even running more action for him.  

Interesting stats was mentioned last night.  Jaylen and Jayson have scored at least 30 points each in 15 games.  That puts them as the most dynamic pairing in Celtics history in terms of scoring.

Both are off to impressive starts with Jaylen having hit the 30 point mark in 5 out of 11 games and Jayson has accomplished that 6 times including a 40 point piece.

Jaylen has struggled to consistently knock down three pointers and he has been sloppy with the basketball but on the plus side he is averaging 25.4 PPG and 6.7 rebounds.  His career high FT attempts of 5.4 has produced a career high 84.7%.

Jayson is playing on another level.  His 31.2 PPG average reflects his status as an elite scorer.  This kid is special.  

I really like the way the Jays are playing off of each other.

I’d say we looked really good in alot of phases. Had the lead the whole game, defense looked better. Good ball movement and alot of high flying dynamic plays from J’s.

dboss wrote:The Celtics took care of business as expected and in doing so are now 8-3 in this young season.  

All things considered, that is a great start.

I am curious about the change in our starting lineup (Grant in and Derrick out)  We have a 2 game sample and probably not enough to make any judgment.  Any thoughts on that?

Sam Hauser scored a career high 24 points last night on the strength of his torrid 3 point shooting (6-12)  CJ is even running more action for him.  

Interesting stats was mentioned last night.  Jaylen and Jayson have scored at least 30 points each in 15 games.  That puts them as the most dynamic pairing in Celtics history in terms of scoring.

Both are off to impressive starts with Jaylen having hit the 30 point mark in 5 out of 11 games and Jayson has accomplished that 6 times including a 40 point piece.

Jaylen has struggled to consistently knock down three pointers and he has been sloppy with the basketball but on the plus side he is averaging 25.4 PPG and 6.7 rebounds.  His career high FT attempts of 5.4 has produced a career high 84.7%.

Jayson is playing on another level.  His 31.2 PPG average reflects his status as an elite scorer.  This kid is special.  

I really like the way the Jays are playing off of each other.

Dboss,

I agree, love the way the J's play off each other.

Thought it was a nice win last night. Other than defensive rebounding, (but give Stewart and Duran some credit, they are two tough hombres) looked good all around.

Celtics17 wrote:

dboss wrote:The Celtics took care of business as expected and in doing so are now 8-3 in this young season.  

All things considered, that is a great start.

I am curious about the change in our starting lineup (Grant in and Derrick out)  We have a 2 game sample and probably not enough to make any judgment.  Any thoughts on that?

Sam Hauser scored a career high 24 points last night on the strength of his torrid 3 point shooting (6-12)  CJ is even running more action for him.  

Interesting stats was mentioned last night.  Jaylen and Jayson have scored at least 30 points each in 15 games.  That puts them as the most dynamic pairing in Celtics history in terms of scoring.

Both are off to impressive starts with Jaylen having hit the 30 point mark in 5 out of 11 games and Jayson has accomplished that 6 times including a 40 point piece.

Jaylen has struggled to consistently knock down three pointers and he has been sloppy with the basketball but on the plus side he is averaging 25.4 PPG and 6.7 rebounds.  His career high FT attempts of 5.4 has produced a career high 84.7%.

Jayson is playing on another level.  His 31.2 PPG average reflects his status as an elite scorer.  This kid is special.  

I really like the way the Jays are playing off of each other.

Dboss,

I agree, love the way the J's play off each other.

Thought it was a nice win last night. Other than defensive rebounding,  (but give Stewart and Duran some credit, they are two tough hombres) looked good all around.

Celtics17

I mentioned that kid Duren in my pregame thread. He is only 18 years old. I would not mind seeing Brad make an offer to get him.