Three Studs, Three Duds From Celtics Win Streak Ending To Sneaky Pistons

These weren’t the same pushover and lowly Detroit Pistons the Boston Celtics were accustomed to facing over the last handful of seasons.

And if the Celtics somehow didn’t know that, they saw it firsthand Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena.

The Pistons, perhaps the only team hotter in the NBA at the moment than the Celtics, didn’t cool off against Boston and ran away with a 117-97 win over the reigning NBA champions. It was Detroit’s eighth straight win — its longest streak since 2008 — while the Celtics had their six-game winning streak come to an end.

The Celtics had their shots falling — they hit 21-of-49 (42.9%) 3-pointers — but didn’t have the necessary defensive intensity on the second night of a back-to-back to slow down the Pistons. Boston was also without Jaylen Brown, who was sidelined due to a left thigh contusion.

Here are three studs and three duds from the sneaky-good Pistons besting the Celtics:

STUDS
Jayson Tatum
Ignore the four turnovers, all of which were committed in the first quarter, for a second. Tatum tried to put the Celtics on his back with Brown out and drilled several tightly-contested jumpers to begin the game. Tatum scored 27 points on 10-for-19 shooting to go along with six rebounds and three assists, but it wasn’t enough.

Malik Beasley
The Celtics couldn’t stop Beasley once he got going. The Pistons guard came off the bench to pour in a team-high 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the floor, including hitting six 3-pointers. Beasley, who nearly outscored the entire Celtics bench, gave the Pistons a big cushion when he drained back-to-back triples to begin the fourth quarter.

Cade Cunningham
Cunningham is quickly becoming a bona fide NBA star. It felt like he had a quiet night until you looked up and saw he had a double-double of 21 points and 11 assists. The 6-foot-6, 220-pound forward always seemed in control of what he wanted to do and turned in a strong performance, even if it didn’t come with any exclamation points.

DUDS
Neemias Queta
There was plenty of excitement at the start of the season around Queta’s potential to make an impact off the bench. That hasn’t happened and the Pistons surprisingly exploited the athletic seven-foot center on the defensive end. The Pistons took it to Queta and attacked him on drives to the basket as Detroit scored 62 points in the paint. Queta also didn’t do anything offensively, scoring no points in 11 minutes.

Jrue Holiday
Holiday probably is saving himself for the playoffs, but it still would have been nice to see him step up more with Brown injured. Holiday couldn’t be counted on to provide secondary scoring as he netted just four points on 2-for-10 shooting from the floor, including a 0-for-5 mark from 3-point range in 31 minutes.

Kristaps Porzingis
Porzingis sat out the win over the Raptors due to a non-COVID illness and it still seemed like he was still battling sickness against the Pistons. He didn’t look like himself over 26 minutes, scoring just 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting to go along with only two rebounds. Porzingis committed five fouls and finished with a game-low minus-24 rating.