NBA Matchups: December 15

DET @ BOS | TOR @ MIA | DAL @ UTA | HOU @ DEN | MEM @ LAC

Detroit Pistons at Boston Celtics

Team Totals: Pistons 113.8, Celtics 115.8

Injury Report: Amari Williams (Q, G League)

Pistons projected starters: Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren

Celtics projected starters: Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Jaylen Brown, Jordan Walsh, Neemias Queta

Bickerstaff quotes: Said they found their groove at the end of the second and it carried over to the second half (blew out the Hawks), said Holland had energy and “does whatever it takes to win basketball games,” said the time off was helpful and “we looked fresh,” said it hasn’t been easy for Sasser and Ivey to come back from injuries.

Mazzulla quotes: Said the Bucks turned up their pressure and it affected them, said they may not crash at the right rate, said the Bucks broke them down with driving, said it was “just not our night” against the Bucks, said Kuzma got it going in transition and he hit some quality threes against them.

Stats and Notes:

*In Detroit’s win against the Hawks, the Pistons looked like the team that couldn’t lose with excellent paint defense and superior offense. Their strong paint defense won’t be too helpful here with Boston ranking 28th in paint points and last in rim frequency. The Pistons don’t have a great 3-point defense with the sixth-highest C&S 3PA frequency allowed, and Boston is second in 3-point frequency (they shoot a lot of pull-up treys, though). The Pistons are also getting beaten in transition with the sixth-most points allowed, but Boston is below average there. For Boston’s defense, they’ve been excellent with paint defense at second in the NBA, which will be needed against Detroit’s top-ranked paint offense. The Celtics are still playing extremely slow at 28th in O pace, while the Pistons are just 18th. These teams have split their two games against each other (BOS 119-113, DET 117-114 with both home teams winning). Lastly, the Celtics’ first unit has been awesome at 103.9 for defensive rating (second behind the Zach Edey starting unit among lineups with 100 minutes), and that lineup plays at the second-slowest pace (current Knicks starters slowest).