Playing without Jayson Tatum for the first time since April, the Celtics held off a scrappy Detroit Pistons squad Wednesday night at TD Garden.
Boston led by as many as 20 points, then survived a fourth-quarter scare and pulled away late to win 130-120 while Tatum and fellow starter Jrue Holiday sat out with minor knee injuries.
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 28 points and a season-high nine assists, including a stellar 23-point first half. Kristaps Porzingis was the most productive he’d been since his return from leg surgery, finishing with 26 points, nine rebounds and two blocks.
Sam Hauser, after sitting out Monday’s win over Miami for personal reasons, started and scored a season-high 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 5-of-10 from 3-point range. Payton Pritchard scored 12 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter to help the Celtics deny Detroit’s comeback bid.
“When people are in and out (of the lineup), it doesn’t really matter because people are ready and people are hungry to get that extra minutes, shots, whatever it is,” Porzingis said. “That just speaks to the character of the guys that maybe are not getting the minutes they would get on a weaker team, and that’s why we’re so good.”
Porzingis made his presence felt early with a block at the rim, a lob dunk from Brown, an assist on an Al Horford 3-pointer, a drawn foul and a made three, all in the first four minutes.
The Celtics quickly built a double-digit lead during that opening flurry, which included 3-pointers from all five Boston starters. Hauser’s came off a stolen inbounds pass, one of eight first-quarter turnovers by Detroit.
Brown also found consistent success attacking the Pistons on drives. He converted a pair of and-1 layups and threw down a vicious dunk over Isaiah Stewart (which he punctuated with a throat-slash gesture that could earn him a fine from the NBA) as part of a 16-point first quarter.
Asked whether he expects hear from the league about his celebration, Brown replied: “Oh yeah.”
“Just caught up in the moment, I guess,” he said. “Big play. I think that the NBA and the PA are sensitive about the gestures and things like that, so I’ve got to be mindful of that.”
Brown played the entire first – Tatum’s role in most games this season – and got to the foul line five times (5-for-8).
The Celtics led 23-7 after five minutes and 39-24 at the end of one quarter. The Pistons hung around thanks to hot shooting from Cade Cunningham (27 points, 14 assists, nine rebounds) and some pop from their bench (nine first-half points apiece from Malik Beasley and Marcus Sasser), cutting Boston’s edge to 10 points midway through the second quarter.
But the Celtics responded with a scoring blitz sparked by a Horford block on Tobias Harris. Porzingis hit a three on the ensuing possession, followed by a Derrick White steal, another foul-drawing Brown layup in transition and a corner three from Horford off a nifty pass from Brown, who became the first player since James Harden in 2014 to notch 23 points, five assists and three steals in a first half.
“He’s one of the best players in the league, in my opinion,” Porzingis said. “… He’s an animal, not going to lie.”
A White three one minute later made it 66-47 Celtics. That play also featured some extracurriculars under the basket, with Stewart, surely miffed over the earlier celebration, shoving Brown as the two squared off for a rebound.
Porzingis also took issue with an enthusiastic box-out by Stewart on the final shot of the first half. The two later were hit with matching technical fouls after tangling under the basket during the fourth quarter.
The Pistons got to within 10 midway through the third, but the Celtics again stiff-armed their comeback bid. This time, it was Hauser creating the separation by scoring through contact beneath the basket and then drilling two threes in a 66-second span.
Typically a core reserve, Hauser has started two of the last three games as Boston works to avoid overburdening its stars early in the season. Brown and White sat out Sunday’s loss to Cleveland, and Porzingis, Horford, Holiday and Hauser all were unavailable Monday against Miami.
Those absences also have led to larger roles for deep bench players like Drew Peterson, Jordan Walsh and Xavier Tillman, who all made cameos Wednesday.
“I think we did a lot of this last year where guys are just ready to step up when their number’s called,” Hauser said. “You’ve seen it the last two or three games now. Drew Peterson’s played a lot of minutes. Jordan’s played a lot of minutes. Baylor (Scheierman) got some take the other game. I credit our player development team for that. They always keep us sharp.”
A torrid start to the fourth quarter from Beasley helped cut Detriot’s deficit to six, but it couldn’t close the gap. A Porzingis alley-oop stretched the lead back to double digits at 117-107, and Brown followed with a slam of his own off a White offensive rebound.
Pritchard, quiet for much of the night, leaped to corral the loose ball after a Porzingis miss and buried a triple to put Boston up 14. Then, he hit another with less than a minute remaining after the Pistons had cut it to five.
Pritchard played the entire fourth quarter for the third time in four games and made four of his final six 3-pointers. His late scoring surge allowed the Celtics to withstand an uncharacteristically successful night from beyond the arc for Detroit, which made seven more threes (20) than its season average at a 16% higher clip (51.3%).
“It’s a privilege that we have such a talented team,” Porzingis said. “We have I don’t know how many guys that can score 20 and it will not be a surprise. … It’s a big privilege we have, and that’s why this team is (what we are).”
Kornet was a quiet second-half standout with a block, two steals, two offensive rebounds and five points over the final two quarters.
The Celtics will host the Milwaukee Bucks and Memphis Grizzlies this Friday and Saturday before beginning a stretch that, thanks to their early elimination from the NBA Cup, features just two games over the next 11 days.
