Time can heal, and it appears to have done that for the Boston Celtics.
At least it did Friday night.
The Celtics used big surges in the second and fourth quarters to create some separation between themselves and the Detroit Pistons, ultimately earning a 110-98 win at Little Caesars Arena.
With the win, Boston snapped a three-game losing streak that it took into the All-Star break, and the victory certainly felt like a refreshing change of pace after the ugly skid.
In many ways, the win over Detroit certainly felt like a proverbial turning of the page given the things that went right that previously had been going wrong.
Marcus Smart was back for the first time in 11 games, providing some much-needed bench defense that the Celtics dearly had missed in his absence. Offensively, he scored 12 points while contributing six assists.
Meanwhile, the Celtics didn’t get obliterated in the paint. In fact, they outscored the Pistons in the paint 44-40, something that particularly should be encouraging given the handful Andre Drummond is, and how miserable he has made the Celtics in recent memory.
Granted, Friday was just one sample size, and before the sun rises Saturday, the C’s will be wheels down in New York City to take on the Knicks in the second game of a back-to-back. The final 22 games of the season will be a grind, but they at least got things off to a good start.
Here are some other notes from Celtics-Pistons:
— Daniel Theis had one of the best games of his career in the win. The reserve big man tallied a career-high 19 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the field, hitting both of his 3-point attempts. The 25-year-old added seven rebounds (four on the offensive end) with a pair of steals and a block.
Theis’ night was emblematic of the Celtics bench’s performance as a whole. The reserves scored 65 points — a season-high for the unit — as they outscored the starters by 20.
— Aron Baynes left the game just minutes after tipoff with left elbow soreness.
Celtics PR initially indicated he would return, but at halftime, the 31-year-old was ruled out. Head coach Brad Stevens noted after the game that Baynes would be sore Saturday, but was not yet ruled out for their game against the Knicks.
— The Celtics now are 20-8 on the road. In addition, the win was their fifth consecutive road victory over the Pistons.
That run of success against Detroit is a franchise-best since an 11-game run from 1979-1982.
