The Detroit Pistons hadn’t lost in nearly a month before visiting the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Wednesday.
That didn’t faze the short-handed Celtics, however, who handed them their first loss since Oct. 27 with a thrilling 117-114 victory, snapping the Pistons’ 13-game winning streak.
With Detroit shooting for its franchise-record 14th straight win and eighth consecutive road victory, Joe Mazzulla’s squad stopped the Eastern Conference leaders in their tracks, sending them home with just their third loss of the season.
Cade Cunningham led all scorers with 42 points while adding eight rebounds and five assist, but it wasn’t enough. After going 14 of 15 from the charity stripe, he shockingly missed his 16th and final attempt that would have tied the game during the closing seconds, allowing Boston to escape with the narrow victory.
Jaylen Brown turned in another monster game for the Celtics, pacing them in points (33), rebounds (10) and assists (five). He was extra active on the boards with Neemias Queta out, picking up the slack with his second-highest rebound total of the season.
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He got plenty of help from Derrick White, who finally snapped out of his season-long shooting funk with 27 points. White was dialed in from beyond the arc, drilling a season-high six 3-pointers on 11 attempts.
Payton Pritchard chipped in 16 points and four 3-pointers, while Baylor Scheierman had 13 points off the bench in his second-best scoring effort of the season.
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Amari Williams helped fill in for Queta with 15 minutes after being called up from the G League, contributing three rebounds, two blocks and one point.
Boston improves to 10-8 with the win and has won five of its last six games. The Celtics will look to stay hot this weekend in a tough road back-to-back against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Cleveland Cavaliers to close out November.
