“Cunningham was an absolute KILLER!” — ESPN on Pistons beat Celtics 112–105 to win 4th straight game

“Cunningham was an absolute KILLER!” — ESPN on Pistons beat Celtics 112–105 to win 4th straight game

built for time. >> All right, what’s happening to Celtics postgame live? Celtics falling 112 105 to the Detroit Pistons at TD Garden tonight. A game in which the Celtics led by four at the half. Then the third quarter, you saw things shift. You had the Pistons taking lead going into the fourth and then was back and forth a little bit there towards the end, but it’s the Pistons who come out on top. Tom Charles, Chris Forsber, Eddie House, your initial thoughts after this one. I thought it was a good basketball game. Besides the result, you know, of us not getting the W, I thought it was a good basketball game. I thought you seen physicality. I thought you seen guys executing at times. And I thought you also seen guys that stepped up in certain situations. Um, I think that we could have been a little bit better in certain situations on the offensive glass. That one that one particular play where Tobias Harris was able to get that put back. I mean, they got a bunch of shots right there that that sometimes that shifts the momentum of a basketball game. And we weren’t able to really grasp the momentum like that. It was nip and tuck, nip and tuck until they were able to do it. And you know, uh, that’s the reason why they’re in first place right now. >> Yeah. And I think that was the first play of the first quarter, right, where they give up the two offensive rebounds, Joe calls the immediate timeout. There were just too many instances in this game where the Celtics lost their way. Whether and some of it wasn’t their own fault necessarily, but Jordan Walsh kind of got taken right out of this game with the whistles and just could never get comfortable and play the defense to the physicality that he wanted to. Ugo the same thing. They the end of the third quarter, Ugo goes in there and gets blown by and then turns the ball over and tough way to finish that quarter. Not getting the rebounds to start the fourth quarter. It all sort of adds up. And so when you then lose the shot margin, you don’t win the three-point battle, like it’s really difficult. As good as JB was and as good as Derek White was in the fourth quarter to make up for all the missteps along the way. An unusually high turnover night for the Celtics, they very rarely lose the turnover battle. So just all the little things add up and get you at the finish line. As Eddie said, a fun game, playofflike vibes despite that 40minute third quarter like with all the whistles and you but you just got to find a way to be be better especially given all the time off you’ve had and it’s a little disappointing that they weren’t just a little bit more Chris. >> Yeah, there was definitely it was difficult to get any sort of rhythm going in that third quarter when you had 17 fouls, 21 free throws. Uh but as you get back to it and how this thing shifted and by the way Chris, six turnovers in the fourth for the Celtics in this one. So that certainly uh played its role in it. We check out some of the highlights going back to the third when things started to turn here for the Celtics and uh again they were up by four at the break and then got outsc scored 32 to 24 in the third. Um and then you know outscored 27-24 in the fourth. Here’s the third quarter. Taking a look at some of the tape here. Eddie, what did you see coming out of halftime that changed where Detroit was able to to take over? >> I you know what it was it it was a weird game. I think that the referees kind of got into the in the way of the game being because it’s really hard to distinguish how a ref is going to call a game, right? Until it starts happening till the game is going to happen. Then you’re like, “Okay, this fool is letting us be physical.” Now it goes from, “Okay, we going to let y’all be physical to now we’re going to start calling things.” So now you can’t be as physical as you was at the beginning of the game in the first half. And to me, that’s extremely hard to do as a player to try to differentiate how a referee’s going to call it from half from quarter to quarter to half to half. >> And as a result, you see uh Detroit with the 112 105 win. These two teams will meet up just one more time this year. That’ll be January 19th. Back to Little Caesar’s Arena. We bring in Drew Carter and Scowl now. And uh fellas again, Celtics had a good rhythm going early in this game, but then uh things certainly slowed down and just not enough in the end as it was Kate coming in and Detroit coming out on top. >> Yeah, Jos, I thought what Eddie just said was, you know, right on point. It felt like such a different game from the first half to the third quarter. Uh well, look, look who this is. >> Got an allar with us. >> Mike Gorman. >> Legend just dropping by. >> Yeah, Mike and Terry in town. That’s how you know it’s a big game. >> Big game >> when the when the Gormans drop by. Even Mike Gorman didn’t like the officials in the third quarter. >> No, I mean I get it. Like we’ve had it was a blood bath. I understand it was entertaining to watch in the first half. I I’d rather the officials stay out of the way. Kind of thought they did in the fourth. Kate Cunningham. We can’t take anything away from him in the fourth quarter. He was awesome. Um we had some guys with some big time performances. But here’s an example. So the Toronto game, Milwaukee game, and now the Detroit game. We’re playing slower in the second half and it’s not working out for us. Think about our our key moments in the second half. Transition three, transition going to the basket, everything faster, but then we slow it down. I just didn’t feel like we had that much success in the half court against Detroit. And I I don’t necessarily love the way that we execute in the half court, you know, um you know, picking on matchups and stuff like that. It does work out at times, but I don’t know if that’s sustainable against really good teams. >> Yeah, and we’re talking about the officiating of course. It did go both ways. Both teams had a million fouls in the third quarter, but it did make the game more choppy, harder to get into that flow that you’re talking about, which has been really good to the Celtics when they do play fast and get shots earlier in the shot clock. I mean, against a a really physical team like Detroit, third best defense in the NBA, what do you want to see them do offensively? So, I’m I’m a big believer in gravity, right? So, you you push the ball, you get guys running back, and then you play off of that. If us in transition, we stay on the perimeter and we look to move it. I think you attack the paint and look to spray it, right? I think that’s just a maybe a little bit different in philosophy, but like even like the Derek White three was driving the ball inside the paint, kicking it back out. So gravity to me is like the force of what you do when you push the ball, you get to Detroit Pistons, running back, sprinting back, setting up their defense, and then attacking when they close out. And I just I feel like in the second half we don’t do enough of that. We don’t we just we pinpoint matchups and we attack matchups. And I get it. Like if we had Jason Tatum, you can do that, but we don’t have Jason Tatum. You want You don’t You don’t have multiple guys that can go ISO and get you a shot at the rim or a pull up. We right now we really have one guy and that’s Jaylen Brown. And then Derek White played out of his mind tonight, but it still wasn’t enough. >> That’s why the Celtics are last in the league in pace. You got to have the ball to push it and they had gave up 12 offensive rebounds tonight to the Pistons, Giles. But I I mean again hanging with Detroit, you know, that’s three games and three really >> moral victories here. No moral victories though, man. >> This ain’t like win-win for the Gipper. >> All right. All right, guys. >> Thank Thank you. Oh, yeah. I mean, well, Tilts were favored in this game. They were uh >> but in the end, they lose back-to-back games for the first time since the very beginning of November. Now 15 and 11 on the season. We’re just getting started. More Celtics Postgame Live coming your way after this. Celtics Postgame Live is presented by your New England Ford dealers and Ford trucks. Celebrate the year in sales event in a new Ford three. That three cut it to four. And then he had Derek White with the runner making it 104102. But on the other end, Cade Cunningham and again this is why he’s in that conversation for MVP. He was clutch down the stretch. Knocks that down to make it 108 102. Derek White actually had 14 points in the fourth quarter, including these three as well to make it a three-point game, but again, >> you know who. >> Kate Cunningham with two of his 32 points to go with 10 assists. And the Pistons, that’s how they get to the 112 105 win. And Chris, you were saying usually when Derek White has a big fourth quarter like that, you can expect good things for the Celtics. In this situation, though, maybe the good things were just outweighed by the fact that Kate Cunningham made those clutch shots down the stretch. It almost felt like they thought Celtics weren’t going to make a run. And then Derek finally kind of gets going and you’re thinking, okay, like when Derek has a good fourth quarter, they find a way. They like just they I don’t know, there’s something special about when when Derek gets going. And so he’s knocking down the threes. He’s making the little floater. He’s got his touchback. You’re thinking, “Wow, they’re going to find a way.” Well, then the other end, Kate Cunningham comes down and twice against Derek, who was playing good defense. It’s just that you can get enough separation and it goes back to it. You made too many errors along the way where you couldn’t catch up at the finish line and make up for some of those missteps. And so a reminder of how good you got to be at the end of quarters, a reminder how you’ve got to play without fouling. Got to take care of the basketball. I mean, even Derek had the ball slip away for a turnover there late fourth. Payton Pritchard air balls a three. Some like really uncharacteristic stuff from a team that even though they haven’t been great in clutch moments, they have found and typically been in especially in games against elite competition found a way to be better. Well, you got six turnovers in the fourth quarter. That’s a problem right there. When you only had 13 for the game, right? So, that those are the reasons. And then only 16 assists. So, you have 13 turnovers and 16 assists. When those numbers are close to matching up, most of the time you lose those basketball games. We had a chance to win this game. We just could not get the stops when we needed to. We did not get the rebound when we needed to. and we did not make the shot when we needed to. Derek White was phenomenal in the fourth quarter. He showed up. He did what he was supposed to do.

“Cunningham was an absolute KILLER!” — ESPN on Pistons beat Celtics 112–105 to win 4th straight game