When Lawrence Frank addressed the team after the game, the first thing he mentioned was defense. In the final three quarters, the Pistons held the Celtics to 55 points, 20 or fewer points in each quarter. The next thing he mentioned was the Pistons converting the Celtics' season-high 24 turnovers into 40 points. He also touched on that little number in the free throws attempted column (46). Here, see for yourself:
Yeah, that's how the Pistons won their seventh of their last nine games. Of course, it didn't hurt that the Celtics were missing KG and Rajon Rondo played horribly before getting ejected for angrily throwing the basketball at one of the really friendly referees.
It's crazy, because the PIstons could've won by a lot more than the final difference of 15 if they had hit more of their free throws (they only made 63-percent when they are usually amongst the best in the NBA at 78-percent) and had they shot better than 38-percent from the field (they actually made one less basket than the Celtics and two more than what they made at the free throw line).
Greg Monroe led the Pistons with 18 17 points and 10 rebounds for his 16th double-double of the season. Rodney Stuckey added 16 points (on 2-for-10 shooting) and four steals.
Detroit's easy February doesn't get any harder, as they play next in Cleveland on Tuesday in what will not be NBA TV's Fan Night game.
- It's always fun to beat the Celtics ... It's always fun to see Bill Simmons stew afterwards :
- Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook outscored the Celtics and six other NBA teams on Sunday night.
- I'm glad Jerebko made it home in time to catch Eastbound and Down:
- During the highlights on SC, Stu Scott said he was tweeted that if you look up #swag in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of Jerebko. Some Chicago-based AP Sports writer was kind enough to confirm whether this was true or not.
- The Palace was apparently sold out.
- From True Blue:
- Oh, right, the basketball game, um...
- CelticsBlog on their loss.
- All this winning against bad teams (and a playoff team twice), and the Pistons are still the 7th worst team in the NBA, 5.5 games out of the No. 8 seed.
- Moose on the winning:
- Box Score
- Boston has to play in Dallas tomorrow night (on TNT), their third of five on the road (Thunder on Wednesday before finishing in Cleveland after the ASG).
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It isn’t accurate to credit Jason Maxiell solely with the Pistons’ turnaround, but it’s got to be more than coincidence that since Lawrence Frank put Maxiell in the starting lineup the Pistons are 7-3.
"Our effort and intensity and focus over a full 48 minutes has changed. Everybody has come into their roles. Everybody is holding each other accountable and we're all playing together."