The Pistons went into Boston to show that regardless of all the coverage and attention being given to the Celtics that they were still the team to beat in the East. Despite a rocky opening half they did just that.

The first half of basketball seen the Pistons shooting under 40% and the Celtics shooting over 60%. Their defense wasn’t as crisp as it has been for most of the season, the rotations were slow to come leading to some easy Celtics’ buckets. The Pistons focused on Boston’s big 3 preferring to have one of the Celtics’ bit players beat them and for a half of basketball Rajon Rondo did just that. Rondo scored 14 points in the opening half on a variety on knifing drives and hitting jumpers when he found himself open. Luckily Detroit only found themselves down by a manageable 7 points heading into the half.

There’s a lot of teams in the NBA that the Celtics can theoretically beat by half time, but the Detroit Pistons are not one of them.

The Pistons tightened up the defensive screws on Boston in the third period only allowing them put put 13 on the board, setting the stage for a dramatic 4th quarter finish.

The spark that ignited the Pistons and gave them the go ahead was Lindsey Hunter. Lindsey picked Eddie House’s pocket on one possession then went to the floor for another steal on the next. Hunter was doing work on the other end too hitting a leaner and nailing a three.

Then, it was Chauncey time. Billups took over down the stretch scoring 10 of his game high 28 points against the team that once used their #3 overall pick on him.

Billups and the Pistons were up by six with under a minute to go when Boston hit two consecutive three pointers to knot the game up at 85. The next Pistons’ possession they turned th ball over and luckily for them they were able to force Boston into a contested shot by Paul Pierce that missed. Rasheed secured the rebound and called the timeout with 1.7 seconds left. The ball went into Chauncey “Mr. Big Shot” Billups who pump faked and got the Celtics’ Tony Allen in the air. The crafty vet move left the refs no choice but to call the foul on Allen with .10 seconds left on the game clock and Chauncey nailed both free throws giving the Pistons the 87-85 victory.

The win snapped the Celtics 9 game winning streak as well as gave them their first home loss of the season in after winning their previous 12 games in Boston.

The Pistons, Celtics, and Magic are the 3 best teams in the East record wise and Boston has lost to us and Orlando. There’s a case to be made for Boston being the third best team in the East.