Jayson Tatum led six Boston players in double figures with 19 points and the host Celtics ended the Detroit Pistons' four-game winning streak with a 118-110 victory on Wednesday.
Gordon Hayward contributed 18 points and eight assists, while Al Horford supplied 17 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists. Jaylen Brown had 17 points and seven rebounds, Marcus Smart added 16 points and five assists, and Marcus Morris chipped in 11 points.
The Celtics were missing their top two point guards. All-Star Kyrie Irving sat out for the second consecutive night with a right knee strain, while Terry Rozier was sidelined by an illness.
Blake Griffin led Detroit with 32 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Andre Drummond had 21 points, 17 rebounds and four steals, Reggie Jackson tossed in 18 points, and Wayne Ellington added 13 points off the bench.
Both teams were playing their final game before the All-Star break. Boston was playing the tail end of a back-to-back after winning in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
Hayward scored 11 first-half points as Boston led 57-52 at halftime. Brown contributed 10 points off the bench, while Griffin reached the 20-point mark.
The Celtics took control in the third, outscoring Detroit 34-20 to gain a 91-72 lead.
Boston opened up an 11-point lead early in the third with an 8-0 spurt that included 3-pointers from Hayward and Smart.
When Tatum made a trey from the right side with 6:47 left in the quarter, Boston's lead was 72-58.
Later in the quarter, Smart drained back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the Celtics' advantage to 17 at 85-68.
Tatum fired in another long shot in the final minute of the quarter to make it 89-69. Smart made the last basket of the quarter, scoring along the right baseline while falling down.
The Pistons didn't go quietly. They reeled off a 20-2 run, capped by a Drummond steal and dunk, to cut Boston's lead to 10. Horford made a three to end that outburst. Detroit couldn't get the deficit into single digits until the final two minutes.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
