The Celtics annihilated the Pistons 119-93 tonight at the Garden. They clearly were pissed off with what transpired in Cleveland Sunday and took their frustrations out on the lowly, undermanned Pistons.
The Truth set the tone early. 12 first quarter points on 3-5 FG, 5-5 FTs. He was the definition of aggressive. Rajon Rondo had 3 steals, while Perk and KG (4 rebounds each) controlled the boards. Glen Davis chipped in 5 points. After the dust settled, the Celtics led 31-15. It may have been the perfect quarter of basketball.
The second unit continued the stellar play. Michael Finley had the stroke (8 points). Marquis Daniels with the solid all-around effort - 5 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists. The Celtics had 15 assists and one turnover in the first half. The score: 64-35 at the break.
The Cs got sloppy in the 3rd. The Pistons put up 35 points in the quarter and sliced the 31 points lead to 19. For a millisecond I thought to myself - this can't happen, can it?
The second unit rattled off a 13-2 run (Finley had 7 points) to put the Pistons out of their misery. The Celtics shot 13-for-15 in the final quarter. The exclamation point came when Nate Robinson threw down a dunk off a Tony Allen off-the-backboard pass.
Some numbers of note:
Pierce finished with 15 points in 17 minutes. Finley was a bit more efficient - 15 points in 14 minutes. The bench tallied 61 points. The Celtics shot 62%.