Although the Celtics made the game look easy for the first 2½ quarters, they immediately wilted when Detroit ramped up its defense and forced them to make difficult offensive plays.
Tatum never looked comfortable. Shots that usually go down just didn’t. And without Jaylen Brown, it was essentially on him to carry the team when the game was in the balance.
The Celtics needed All-NBA Tatum when they led, 99-89, with 8:19 left.
But the Pistons countered with a stirring 23-0 run behind the shooting of Duncan Robinson and former Celtic Javonte Green. Tatum finished 6 for 23 and 0 for 7 from the 3-point line. He missed all nine of his attempts outside of 17 feet and made just 2 of 7 shots at the rim.
The Pistons stuck First-team All-Defense Ausar Thompson on Tatum and the results were dreadful.
“I mean [the shot] felt good, but definitely not one of my best nights,” Tatum said. “I have to play better. Part of my role is scoring so I felt really good about a lot of the looks. Maybe slow down when I get to the rim, but there’s a lot of things I could learn from and just be better for next time.”
The issue was the Celtics were pushed around and outhustled in the second half. Detroit was the tougher team. The Pistons ramped up their defense, which turned into transition points and 3-pointers. The Celtics had little interior presence. The combination of Mitchell Robinson and Neemias Queta combined for 7 points and 7 rebounds in a combined 40 minutes.
They’re going to need more from that duo. Robinson, making his Boston debut, was kicked in the left ankle by Jalen Duren in the first quarter and remained in the game, but he wasn’t the defensive menace needed in the paint. The Pistons challenged the Celtics’ will in the second half and the Celtics relented, unable to maintain their jump shooting.
Robinson was supposed to help them be meaner and more intimidating. He realizes he has to be better.
“I got my ass kicked on the glass,” he told the Globe. “I can’t have no starts like that. It’s cool to get out there and put on that Boston jersey for the first time in a regular-season game, but overall, I still didn’t do what I needed to do. I gotta compete better. I feel like I didn’t compete at a high level that I normally do and I was kind of slow on a lot of things.”
The Celtics were kind of slow in the final 20 minutes, which is unacceptable for a team with so much depth and energy off the bench. It reached a point where they were relying on the 36-year-old George to save them when he re-entered the game following his third-quarter heater.
But he missed 5 of 7 shots in the final period and Tatum made just one. With zero interior scoring and not attacking the rim to draw fouls, the Celtics were relegated to chucking threes to rally.
They sought to be a more versatile team, going away from the Tatum-Brown iso-heavy offense in the final minutes. But what we’re learning about the Celtics is that their offense and defense are connected. Bad offense leads to lazy defense.
Duncan Robinson attempted a game-high eight free throws, fouled twice in the second half on 3-point attempts during Detroit’s rally. And the Celtics still haven’t figured out what to do with the bruising Duren, who just manhandled Celtics under the boards for rebounds.
Boston can definitely use this as a learning tool. This wasn’t just a matter of missed shots, but of allowing those missed shots to result in defensive slippage. What is expected to be an elite defensive team yielded 11 second-half 3-pointers and sent the Pistons to the free-throw line 24 times. They were tired, they were lazy, and they got discouraged when Detroit became more physical.
The Celtics will have to decide the type of team they plan to be. They’re not going to win every night beautifully, splashing threes and slashing to the rim for easy layups. They are going to have to gut out victories, win on nights when Tatum can’t find the basket with a GPS, and when the other team continues to play hard despite a large deficit.
At one point as they squandered that 22-point lead, the Celtics allowed the Pistons to score 9 points in a 74-second span. That’s the definition of slippage, of being happy and content with a big lead, of playing with arrogance and negligence.
That’s not a good way to start this new era. They’ll have to prove that it was an aberration.
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.
