Will Pistons' big experiment work in small-ball era?

The Pistons' 107-106 win Wednesday at Boston was an up-and-down referendum on size. The smaller Celtics burst out to a 42-23 lead in the first quarter by

Ian Thomsen|

The Pistons' 107-106 win Wednesday at Boston was an up-and-down referendum on size. The smaller Celtics burst out to a 42-23 lead in the first quarter by beating Detroit to the ball and to the basket. Their play was an example of why small ball usually prevails -- when one team downsizes, the opponent usually has to go small too in order to keep up. Before the game, however, Boston coach Brad Stevens wasn't sure whether the normal rules of engagement would apply against the big Pistons. "I've never seen a 3, 4 and 5 like it," he said. "I was saying to a coaching buddy of mine that they can post up at 18 feet with a four-inch advantage -- and they can do that against us at three positions."

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Published Dec 20, 2013

IAN THOMSEN

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Ian Thomsen, who joined the magazine in 1998, is one of SI's top basketball scribes. Along with writing columns and features for SI, Thomsen is a frequent contributor to SI.com. Before joining SI, Thomsen spent six years in Europe as the sports columnist for the International Herald Tribune, the world's largest international English-language daily. While at the paper Thomsen wrote about an array of sports for a global audience, including the major world and European soccer tournaments, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Olympic Games, Ryder Cups, Grand Slam tennis events, Grand Prix auto races and, very rarely, cricket. Thomsen, who graduated from Northwestern with a journalism degree in 1983, was a feature writer for The National Sports Daily during its short, expensive run of 1990-91. His first job was with The Boston Globe, where he covered Doug Flutie's Boston College Eagles and all three of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals of the 1980s. Thomsen was a feature writer at SI before taking on the NBA beat fulltime in 2000. With Luis Fernando Llosa and Melissa Segura, Thomsen covered the 2001 scandal of overaged Little League pitcher Danny Almonte and wrote the first SI cover story on Kobe Bryant in 1998. Thomsen lives with his wife and two children near Boston.

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