The battle between the top two Eastern Conference teams came down to one final shot on MLK Day, with Jaylen Brown firing with 4.4 seconds left.
Brown got to his spot but came up short, and the Boston Celtics fell for the third time this season to the Detroit Pistons in Monday night’s 104-103 loss. There was nothing about his game-winning attempt that left head coach Joe Mazzulla second-guessing once the ball bounced off the back rim.
“It was a great move by Jaylen. It’s a shot that he makes, and it just didn’t go down,” Mazzulla told reporters, per CLNS Media. “So it was great execution. I’ll take that shot 100 times out of 100.”
Typically, that’s Brown’s bread and butter. He’s converted 45.4% of his five mid-range attempts per game from eight-plus feet, while shooting 53.6% on all 2-pointers this season. In Detroit, he released a 14-foot fadeaway over heavy contest from Tobias Harris — a difficult shot for anyone. Still, it’s one Brown has become accustomed to sinking routinely during his breakout run as Boston’s No. 1 option.
Hours after being named a first-time starter for this year’s NBA All-Star Game, Brown reflected on the final shot.
“Last play — catch, get to a spot, go up — gotta make a play for your team at the end,” he told reporters, per CLNS Media. “We had some opportunities — didn’t convert. We still got some room for growth. That’s what the regular season is for, so we need to be better.”
Brown has been among the most lethal mid-range scorers in the league, making every spot inside the perimeter his domain. So going for it all with an off-balance shot from the elbow is something the Celtics are happy to live with, make or miss. He finished with a game-high 32 points, taking 20 of his 28 shots from the mid-range. In the first quarter, he got going quickly by scoring 13 of the team’s 29 points, but as the defense intensified as the game progressed, the offensive firepower slowed for Brown, the Celtics, and the Pistons.
Mazzulla’s sentiment for Brown’s all-or-nothing look extended to the locker room.
“That’s the shot you wanna take for a game-winner, and we live with it,” Payton Pritchard told reporters in support of Brown, per CLNS Media.
Both sides were held to fewer than 25 points in the fourth quarter, making every shot a critical attempt.
The Celtics turned the ball over 14 times, allowing the Pistons to score 19 points off their own miscues.
“Honestly, I think the game came down to six 50-50 balls that we didn’t come up with in the first half,” Mazzulla told reporters.
Following their Dec. 15 meeting with Detroit over five weeks ago, Brown described his scuffle with Isaiah Stewart in the third quarter as “fun,” adding that he was “all for it,” despite the physicality. That tension flared once more just 29 seconds into Monday night’s game, with the two needing to be separated. Both received double technical fouls, and the Pistons followed Stewart’s lead until the final buzzer.
Pritchard admitted that’s something they’ll have to get used to.
“They’re a very physical team — probably the most physical in the NBA,” Pritchard told reporters. “I thought it was a hard-fought battle, and we came ready to play, and it just didn’t go our way in the end. But you just learn from it and get ready, especially if we see them in the playoffs.”
Paying homage to the “Bad Boy” Pistons of the mid-1980s has, so far, worked for J.B. Bickerstaff’s team. Unlike Boston, Detroit lacks the experience of a team that’s been there before. Over the last 10 years, they’ve secured only three playoff appearances, including two sweeps and three first-round exits. So any edge to impose on the surging Celtics would help bridge that gap.
In a game that lived up to the hype of a best-of-seven series, Mazzulla doesn’t believe the Celtics mailed it in — at all. Detroit’s largest lead never reached beyond 12 points, Boston won the offensive boards battle (14-9), and perhaps most importantly, they got to the free-throw line far more than in recent weeks despite ongoing frustrations with NBA officiating.
Brown was fined $35,000 for criticizing the referees one night. On another night, Mazzulla spoke only two words — “illegal screen” — during a 44-second postgame presser, and the sense of being wronged by the whistle remained strong in the locker room.
During the most recent homestand, which ended on Jan. 10, the Celtics averaged 12.8 free-throw attempts per game. In Detroit, they more than doubled that number.
That’s where Mazzulla recognized noteworthy improvement.
“The free-throw line,” Mazzulla told reporters. “We took 30 free throws. In the first three games we played against them, they averaged 30 free throws. Our ability to be physical, get into the paint, play with contact, and shoot 30 free throws against them — I think that’s where we handled it.”
Mazzulla stressed that the team’s philosophy remains the same, no matter the outcome: “The effort, the physicality was there. If that shot went in, we’d still be watching the exact same clips that we have to get better at. That’s just how we have to approach it.”
