Tight games were hard to come by for Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics for much of last season after putting together one of the more dominant regular seasons in franchise history. That trend continued prior to Saturday night where Jayson Tatum hadn’t even been forced to play a minute of the first quarter in Boston’s first two blowout wins. The tide turned quickly on Saturday night in Detroit where a feisty Pistons squad fought back from a 22-point deficit and dominated much of the second half.
The Pistons held a 112-106 lead with five minutes remaining in the game but the Celtics rallied for a 18-6 run to secure a 3-0 start to the year with a 124-118 win. There were a lot of heroes for Boston down the stretch in this one. Jrue Holiday hits a pair of clutch 3s to erase the Pistons lead.
Jayson Tatum’s shotmaking late helped to give Boston the lead back. Derrick White had a clutch block on Cade Cunningham in the final two minutes while Jaylen Brown secured multiple key defensive rebounds against bigger Pistons players in the last minute of regulation. Still, one of the more interesting developments down the stretch of the victory was Joe Mazzulla’s strategy in the closing seconds of regulation.
Boston held a 121-118 lead with 17 seconds left in the game after Derrick White made a pair of free throws. At this point, Mazzulla had a decision to make. There’s no debate about whether fouling up three is the right decision in close games in the closing seconds.
However, 17 seco.
