At one point up by 12 in the first half and by eight in the third quarter, the Celtics let yet another lead and ultimately a win slip out of their grasp in the second half, this time with a 112-105 loss to the Pistons at TD Garden.

“I thought we got some really good looks throughout the second half,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said following the defeat. “I thought in the [Milwaukee] game that was just we didn’t play well, this I thought we executed. I thought we got some really good looks and I thought we didn’t make them.

Like it did in Milwaukee, the Green’s shooting luck once again went cold in the second half, with just five of Boston’s 20 tries from beyond the arc converting. The Celtics were also doubled-up in second-chance points by the night’s end.

“We obviously had some possessions where we either didn’t execute, find the right spacing, and we had 13 turnovers,” Mazzulla said. “A couple of those live balls were for dunks, but I thought it was a better process tonight than it was in the past game. I thought they just made some more plays than we did down the stretch.”

On the Detroit side of things, the comeback was undoubtedly led by superstar Cade Cunningham, who went off for what was a team-leading 32 points on 11-for-21 shooting (6-for-10 from three-point range) to go with 10 assists.

Cunningham was especially lethal in the second half comeback for Detroit, with 19 points and makes on six of his 11 field goal attempts, including a shimmying dagger to put the Pistons back up by five with just 1:13 left in the game.

“[Cunningham] is really good at basketball,” the Celtics’ Derrick White, who did his part to match Cunningham’s second-half heroics with a 14-point fourth quarter performance, said after the loss. “I think his size, and he shot it well today too.

“I think every game’s going to be difficult trying to slow him down, and obviously made some big plays down the stretch.”

The Celtics also had a gigantic missed opportunity linger over themselves in this game, too, as Jaylen Brown missed two free throws with 2:01 remaining in the fourth quarter. Had he made them, the Celtics’ deficit would’ve been down to two.

“We just have to be better; I have to be better,” Brown, who had a game-high 34 points, said. “I wasn’t good enough for my team tonight, so that’s on me.” 

The Celtics will get back to work Friday night at home against the Heat.