Jan. 20, 2026, 12:32 p.m. ET
Despite neither ball club having been seen as a likely contender coming into the 2025-26 NBA regular season, the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics have fought their way to the Nos. 1 and 2 spots in the Eastern Conference Standings, respectively. And the Celtics have been playing the Pistons closely in each of their four regular-season matchups this season, the most recent of which came down to a missed game-winning attempt from star Celtics forward Jaylen Brown.
Asked postgame how he felt about the shot Brown got up to close out the 105-104 loss to Detroit on Monday (Jan. 19) night, teammate Payton Pritchard said (via CLNS Media) that it was a “shot you want to take for a game winner, and we live with it.”
“They’re a very physical team, probably the most physical in the NBA,” he added, “so I thought it was a hard-fought battle today, and we came ready to play, and it just didn’t go our way in the end.
“But you just learn from it and get ready,” continued the University of Oregon alum. “Especially if we see them in the playoffs.” Asked about coach Joe Mazzulla’s recurrent observation that there are always a handful of plays to improve on, Pritchard seemed to concur.
“Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way. So, we’ve got to try to … make as (many) effort plays as possible. Some of them in the – especially in the first half – we could have cleaned up, lost them through our hands and stuff like that. That’s the kind of stuff you can’t really control.”
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