BOSTON – The Celtics and Pistons lived and died at the free throw line Wednesday night. But it was the Celtics who missed the crucial free throws that cost them the game. They fell to Reggie Jackson’s 24 points as the Pistons won 99-94.
The third quarter was marred by a slew of foul calls early on that stunted the offensive pace. While many of the calls on both ends were questionable, it led to Andre Drummond hitting the bench after Stevens successfully implemented the Hack-a-Dre gameplan.
Drummond made some big plays to help Detroit come back in the fourth, but he watched the closing minutes from the bench with Aron Baynes at the five due to injury.
Isaiah Thomas was having the worst shooting night of his career until the final four minutes of the game, as he single-handedly led a Celtics run to regain the lead with 2:30 left. But Anthony Tolliver nailed a three to regain the lead followed by a Jae Crowder offensive foul.
Stanley Johnson broke the back-and-forth deadlock when he drilled an open corner three early in the shot clock with just under a minute left. With Thomas missing one of his free throws on the previous possession, the Celtics had the ball down two possessions with a minute left.
Stevens ran an ATO play to get Marcus Smart a post up right under the rim. But he threw up a quick spinning reverse layup, which wasn’t close to going in.
Isaiah Thomas missed another critical free throw in the final minute as did Marcus Smart, leaving the Celtics down two with just over 30 seconds left. After getting a crucial stop, Marcus Smart was called for an over the back foul on the foot taller Baynes on the rebound, giving Detroit a four-point lead. The Celtics would never recover and eventually were done in by the Pistons' free throws.