Celtics-Pistons was a physical battle no one expected, but would make for an amazing playoff series

DETROIT -- Jaylen Brown got to a spot he liked and took a shot he’s hit a hundred times already this season.

“Catch. Get to a spot. Go up. Gotta make a play for your team at the end,” Brown said after the game. “Got some opportunities. Didn't convert.”

His buzzer-beating shot ended up looking like a lot of plays Boston made Monday night in Detroit. He worked really hard for a tough shot and the bounce didn’t go the Celtics’ way.

The Celtics missed a lot of chances to take down the top-seeded Pistons. Part of it was their offense was the only thing as cold as the temperatures outside. For only the fourth time this season, all losses, the Celtics shot less than 40% from the field. The Celtics offense is their strength, and they’ve been jockeying with the Denver Nuggets at the top of the offensive rating list by scoring about 121 points per 100 possessions. Their rating against the Pistons was 110.8.

“I thought we got pretty good looks for the most part of the night … we just gotta convert,” Brown said. “Credit to them. They're a good defensive team. They're one of the better defensive teams I feel like. They are allowed to be physical. We just didn't convert some shots that we had some good looks. I thought offensively we did a pretty good job, but we can do even better."

Boston’s 103 points might suggest the Celtics didn’t do a good job, but their 110 offensive rating is, in fact, better than the 108 the Pistons currently allow. So in that regard, Brown has a point. If they could run that same game the exact same way and get the same shots, chances are a few more would naturally fall on most nights and Boston could have come away with the win.

We always look at what the losing team did wrong in losses, but they held Detroit five points below their usual offensive rating, and Boston’s defensive rating was two points better than their season average. The Pistons offense isn’t exactly a juggernaut, and Cade Cunningham had an even less efficient game than Brown, but the end result was still Detroit being held in check enough to give the Celtics a chance to win.

“The margins are very, very thin when two great teams are playing with that type of physicality and that type of environment,” Joe Mazzulla said. “Honestly I thought the game came down to six 50/50 balls we didn’t come up with in the first half. We were down 8 in the first half and a couple almost steals we had that didn’t go our way.”

Every missed opportunity is magnified against a tough Piston’s team playing with a ton of confidence. The Celtics only turned the ball over twice more than usual (14 vs. Detroit, they average 12.1 for the season), but the Pistons scored 19 points off those turnovers, five more points more than what opponents usually score.

“They're very physical team, probably the most physical in the NBA,” Payton Pritchard said. “So that was a hard-fought battle today, and we came ready to play. And it's just, you know, didn't go our way in the end, but you just, you learn from it and get ready, especially if we see them in playoffs.”

Based on what we’ve seen this season, a playoff series between these teams would be incredible. This was yet another single-digit game, so even though the Pistons have won three of the four matchups, the Celtics have had their opportunities to win more than one.

The league didn’t expect this to be a premier matchup of the top two teams in the East. The Pistons were ascending, but no one expected them to step into the driver’s seat. The Celtics had talent, but injuries and CBA-driven trades were expected to drag them closer to the middle of the pack. And while it’s possible the second half of the season can bring the reality closer to the original expectations, these two teams have clearly separated themselves from everyone else at the moment.

For these teams to match up in the playoffs, the Pistons will have to battle inexperience to make it through the first couple of rounds. The Celtics might be getting some help back between now and then, but even so, they’ll have to rely on a flawed roster that wasn’t designed to go that deep into the playoffs.

If they hold onto their seeding, a playoff series between these teams would be a battle for the right to go to the NBA Finals. No one saw that coming, but based on what we saw Monday night, it’d be an epic battle that brings back images of a classic rivalry.

“If it gets to that point, that would be awesome,” Sam Hauser said. “They're a good team. We're a good team. And we know that we can compete with the best. And yeah, it'd be great to see them in a playoff series if it gets to that point, for sure.”