Someday, the current group in Detroit could be a good team. Despite what the Pistons did in their two recent meetings with the Celtics, the latest resulting in a 113-104 Boston win, they are still not a team that should give the C's such a fit.
Part of that's been the result of the Pistons' shooters showing up against the Celtics. Part that's also been the result of extended stretches where Boston's defense falls apart, which then makes the whole issue surrounding Detroit's scorers more problematic. But another commonality shared by Detroit's pre-NBA All-Star break win against the Celtics and Boston's Saturday win is the Pistons' desire to make the game more physical than an average NBA game played in 2022.
"(The Pistons are) a physical group … that's kind of their identity," Ime Udoka said. "Win or lose, they play the same way. Credit to Dwane (Casey) and what he's doing with them. Their guys have kind of bought into that. … Which we don't mind. If they're going to let us play on both sides, we want to be physical, as well."
As much as the Celtics fell behind after three quarters, they did handle Detroit's physicality better on Saturday. Now, Marcus Smart getting in Isaiah Stewart's face after the Pistons big man got a little too rough isn't an example of that. The difference manifested in little ways, like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown both logging a few more free-throw attempts in fewer minutes, ball movement that led to a few more assists and one more player finishing in double figures than last time Boston saw Detroit. And of course, the Celtics bouncing back in the fourth quarter after falling behind was the biggest sign of growth.
"To be in these tough challenges is good for us," Udoka said. "Our execution in the fourth quarter was great. We were encouraged — they were making some tough shots. We were up four at halftime, down two after the third, and we felt like we didn't play our best at all — on both ends. We were kind of encouraged by that. We said, 'Let's put together a solid 12 minutes here and close it out,' and I think we did that."
And while the adjustment was visible on the floor in some ways and with the overall result, Udoka's message to his players off the floor played a big part in the changes made.
"What I told them was, 'This is how we want to play, so embrace the physicality. Don't complain to the refs, and play through it,'" Boston's head coach said. "We got into the bonus early and kept attacking and took some of that physicality away by us being aggressive. That's playoff basketball. That's what we're going to see. Like I said, embrace it, don't cry about it, and play through it. Adjust to how they're calling it on our end, and use it to our advantage on the other end."
A nice step forward from this would be Boston setting a physical tone in games moving forward. Instead of letting teams thrust physicality upon them, it'd do the Celtics some good to dictate that aspect of the game. Not only so they can take charge — they can very well do that in non-physical settings — but so the Celtics can attempt to put themselves in a playoff-like setting more often. Doing so against some of these lesser opponents might help the Celtics get more out of those games.
