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The Celtics begin to settle in a groove.
Boston won its third consecutive game Tuesday night, beating Detroit Pistons 108-105 at TD Garden.
The situation was balanced in the first period, but the Celtics took control by beating the Pistons 25-13 in the third quarter and kept the lead from the rest of the way, despite a late return to Detroit.
Kyrie Irving led the Celtics with 31 points. Jayson Tatum (16), Marcus Morris (15) and Jaylen Brown (14) also counted twice for Boston. Blake Griffin led Detroit with 24 points and was one of five double digit Pistons.
With this victory, the Celtics climb to 5-2, while the Pistons fall to 4-2.
Here is how it all happened:
FROM FIVE
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Jaylen Brown
F: Jayson Tatum
F: Gordon Hayward
C: Al Horford
Busy at first
The Celtics finished the first period with a record of 31-28 in 12 minutes.
During some stages of the intermediate phase, both teams struggled to establish their attack, with turnarounds (four for each team in the period) and missed attempts with a lot of time at the clock, which resulted in a optimistic transition game. At one point, Boston led by eight, but the Pistons continued to create offensive opportunities and defend themselves well enough in defense.
The Celtics had great contributions from their bench with the reserve unit scoring 16 points with Aron Baynes leading all players with nine points in the first quarter.
PISTONS DISENGAGE
The second period was again tied. The Pistons dominated the Celtics 30-25 and took a 58-56 lead at the break.
The Celtics opened their lead to seven points in three and a half minutes, but Detroit narrowed the gap and tied the game at 5:14 before taking his first lead since the start of the first quarter, 31 seconds later . From there, both teams kept trading opportunities until Reggie Jackson drilled a 29-foot trey to give advantage to the Pistons just before the half-time ringer.
Boston shot 48.8% (20 of 41) of the pack in the first two quarters. Irving, Griffin and Drummond all had 12 points in 24 minutes.
C'S START ROLLING
After a tight first half, the Celtics really began to organize in the third, beating the Pistons 25-13 to give themselves an 81-71 lead before the last minute.
Fleeing by two points early in the stanza, Boston flew 10-0 on 2:43, 68-60 at 6:20. The Celtics then really started to take control. Boston had then taken his biggest lead of the game (12) with 2:52 to play in the frame, thanks to a 3-pointer from Irving and 2:52 in the frame. The trey was the last for Irving in a 96-second race that saw him shoot three shots from far.
Irving had 13 points, the highest number of points in the quarter, and also led the players with 25 points over three periods.
CELTICS COMBAT OFF COMEBACK
The Pistons made things interesting in the fourth, as they defeated Boston 28-22, but the Celtics did enough to retain their victory.
Detroit was able to make a comeback when Boston entered a terrible dry offense, unable to score a placement for a 6:34 bet from the 10:41 mark. At that point, the Cs had five free throws, but the Pistons were able to return to the match. The visitors also took a bit of time to go on the offensive, but a 10-2 record in the mid-period reduced Boston's 88-79 lead to 90-89.
While the Celtics led 101-99 with 15 seconds to play, Morris managed a pair of free throws to bring the score to four. Ish Smith responded with a 3-pointer to reduce the lead to one with 11 seconds ahead, but Tatum knocked down a pair of free throws to bring the score to three. The Pistons' incoming pass was wide, Marcus Smart beating Smith with a dive ball. He sent it to Irving, who was fouled and undertook to hit two free throws to advance to five.
Reggie Bullock splashed a 3-pointer to reduce the Boston advantage to two with 0.4 to play, but Tatum put the game out of reach by making a free throw.
FOLLOWING
The Celtics will stay home for a game Thursday night with the Milwaukee Bucks. The departure of TD Garden is set at 20 hours. AND.
Photo thumbnail via Winslow Townson / USA TODAY HUI Sports Images
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