When making the playoffs doesn’t look like a realistic goal, making other teams look awful becomes more than just a bonus. The Detroit Pistons nearly blew an 18-point lead against the surging Boston Celtics, but eventually came through with the 103-88 win led by Andre Drummond off the bench.
There have been talks about Drummond as an outside-chance kind of guy for rookie of the year. The former Michigan State big man is averaging 7.5 points and 7.3 rebounds so far this season, not exactly ROY numbers, especially with Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis doing much better, but Drummond is doing things the right way – shooting over 60% from the field, improving on defense and not doing anything that’s not in his arsenal of abilities.
I just always move myself into the right areas. Try to get behind the defense. For the most part, we all click as a team.
Since the 8-21 start, the Pistons have gone on a 7-4 run, which is impressive for them, including wins against Miami, Atlanta and twice against the Bucks. Not the empires of the NBA, but better than Detroit themselves, looking a lot more like a team than earlier this season.
This was a messy game, with a total of 39 turnovers. Rajon Rondo wasn’t far from a Q-double, scoring 8 points, turning the ball over nine times, grabbing 9 rebounds and dishing 15 assists. The Celtics shot an awful 39.8% from the field, and Doc Rivers knows that at this pace, maybe some roster changes, meaning a trade, is going to come. Rivers spoke quite a few times about finding the right partnerships on the floor that work, but losing by 15 points to Detroit is a sign things aren’t exactly working.
We are playing awful and I am clearly not doing my job for this team and I am serious. I am not trying to take a bullet for the team and I told them that. I said we have to find something where all 12 guys play the same way.
With Paul Pierce so subdues (10 points, 5-10 from the field) and Rajon Rondo making the wrong choice every time, wins aren’t going to come, as the Celtics fall back to .500 at 20-20, losing for a third consecutive time. Size and toughness make them flinch quite often, and the Pistons have plenty of those on their good days. Greg Monroe was also a problem for the Celtics with 15 points and 11 rebounds, including 4 on offense.
With this kind of up & down motion in their ability, the Celtics aren’t going anywhere this season. Not far in the playoffs that’s for sure. All of Rivers’ talk about being the smarter team, the tougher team, just doesn’t mean anything when they can’t get any kind of consistency against the minnows of the NBA.