Diesel Fuels a Boston Comeback

The reason I stressed the importance of putting the Pistons down early is because they feed off of momentum, especially when they're motivated to beat a superior team like the Celtics. Since the C's played casually and without energy for the first three quarters of the game, Detroit kept the game close and actually had an 8 point lead in the fourth quarter. Luckily the Celtics are resilient, and finally showed signs of life in the fourth, sparked by Shaq's hustle on his way to Boston's only double-double in the game. Paul Pierce had a relatively quiet 22 points, but he and Rondo kept the Celtics in it while a 15-27 Pistons' team played hard and appeared to be the better team on the floor for much of the game. However, Shaq's offensive rebounding and dives for loose balls turned the game around in the fourth, as the Celtics had their best quarter with 28 points and Ray Allen made a very clutch long jump shot after a timeout to put the game away after shooting just 1-7 from the field prior to the shot. Had the Celtics just played harder from the start, they would not have had to rely on a fourth quarter comeback and 38 year old Shaq diving to the floor and putting his health on the line in order to beat this mediocre Pistons' team. Perhaps the only guy playing with any energy last night aside from Shaq was his backup, rookie Semih Erden.

Erden may have dropped a pass or two that would have led to easy buckets, but he did manage to pull in four big rebounds and score 6 points on 3-4 shooting in just 17 minutes played. Also, his one miss was a bounding hook shot in which two Pistons were hanging off of him, but the refs refused to call a foul on the play. There is no denying that even though there may be better athletes in the NBA, very few of them have the energy, basketball IQ, and ability to control the paint that Erden does. He loves to contest every shot he can get his hands near, which results in a lot of opposing misses, and Erden boxes out his man, gets rebounds, and throws quick outlet passes to his guards which lead to fast breaks against defenses that are caught off guard. In his 17 minutes, Erden not only managed to score some points and pull down some boards, but also got a block, an assist, and a team high plus/minus rating of +9. The Turkish rookie does all the little things right, and I still love seeing him get opportunities to get on the court.

Give some credit to the Pistons. Even though the Celtics were lacking the energy that typically gets them wins, Rodney Stuckey and Greg Monroe were making some big shots for them, and were truly the difference makers for their team. Tracy McGrady also had a consistent presence on the court with 7 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals, but shot just 2-9 from the field. His missed jumpers opened the door for the Celtics' comeback, and had he shot better like he did when they faced off in Detroit three weeks ago, the Pistons probably would have won this game. Detroit played some tight defense in order to hold Boston's high powered offense to just 86 points, and were doing a lot of switching on defense in order to keep Ray Allen from having any open jump shots. Luckily for the Celtics, the Pistons continued to keep their leader and sharp shooter Rip Hamilton benched for this game, even though the Carmelo Anthony trade has allegedly fallen through, which means that Hamilton has missed five consecutive games for no genuine reason. Pistons' coach John Kuester could sure use a lesson from Doc Rivers about the importance of team chemistry.