The Boston Celtics lost to the Detroit Pistons 121-113 in Tuesday afternoon's NBA season opener in Detroit.

The Celtics, who finished No. 2 in the Eastern Conference last year, are expected to be very solid again this season. Which is what made Tuesday's 22-point blown lead so discouraging.

That said: We did a learn a lot about the Celtics, even after one game. We already covered the tough performance from the collection of big men.

But beyond that? This game confirmed a lot of what we already thought for most of the offseason.

When the Celtics acquired George from the Philadelphia 76ers for Jaylen Brown, most fans were upset. They saw Brown as a star still in his prime, and they saw George as a declining player who is no longer the guy they had longed to acquire about a decade ago.

However, George really is a good player, and we wrote multiple times this offseason about his ability to raise the ceiling here. He's a good scorer, as evidenced by his 38 points, and he's a good defender, as evidenced by his five steals.

Is he a "better" player than Brown at this point? Maybe not if the two were playing a 1-on-1 game, but he does have the ability to fit into the system that the Celtics play well, and he's a nice compliment to Jayson Tatum.

My biggest fear about the Celtics has been perceived lack of availability for George. He's played more than 56 games only once in the last seven seasons. You clearly saw how important George is to this roster on Tuesday, but you have to expect him to not be there for periods of time.

If he plays 60 games, that would be a huge accomplishment based on where he's been, but that's still 22 games missed? What if he plays 55? Now, that's 27 games missed. And that's a big difference.

No matter what, Tatum will have to play better than the 13-point performance he put up on Tuesday (6-of-23 shooting), but on days where George isn't there? It's clearly evident that he'll have to be the aircraft carrier for this group. While he's obviously capable, he has to show true consistency to be able to keep the Celtics in the mix for a top seed.

The Celtics will play the New York Knicks on Friday night at TD Garden.