Thursday NBA: Pistons (8-3) at Celtics (10-2)
Last year’s Eastern Conference finalists meet for the second time this season, and as good as the Celtics have been this year, the Pistons have been very impressive in the past week – but they are 7-point WagerWeb.com underdogs tonight in Boston.
Yes, Detroit seems to be finding itself with Allen Iverson. The Pistons dropped their first two games with Iverson in the lineup, including an 88-76 loss to Boston in Iverson’s home debut Nov. 9, but they have won four of five games since. Last Friday they handed the Lakers their first loss of the season, and on Wednesday Detroit snapped Cleveland’s eight-game winning streak.
Iverson, to no surprise, leads Detroit in scoring with 20.0 ppg, and the Pistons, who are tied for the most road victories in the NBA with five, have scored 100 or more points in three of the seven games Iverson has played, all victories.
Boston star Kevin Garnett returns from a one-game suspension tonight, and he says the Pistons play differently with Iverson.
“AI’s isolation is probably one of the hardest to guard in the league,” Garnett told reporters. “Detroit’s basketball was once ‘hard nosed half court’, now it looks like they are trying to run. … They’ve got the guys to run, so it does give them a different look, a different threat.”
Boston coach Doc Rivers also expected a better Detroit team than a week ago.
“They’ll be better than the night we played them,” Rivers said. “That was Allen’s third game and first home game. There were too many distractions.”
Boston has won two in a row following its Garnett-less 110-101 win over the Knicks on Tuesday. The Pistons are actually 14-4 in their past 18 games in Boston, but obviously many of those came when the Celtics were down. Boston has won seven of the past nine overall matchups between the teams, including four of six in May to claim the Eastern Conference championship.
This year’s Celtics are holding opponents to 39.9 percent shooting and 90.7 points per game, ranking first and second in the league in those respective categories.
Maybe the Pistons should play Hack-a-Rondo tonight. Boston point guard Rajon Rondo is hitting only 53.5 percent from the free-throw line (23-of-43). That’s unacceptable for a guard or really any NBA player.
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