The Celtics’ recent skid continued Monday night at TD Garden, as they fell 112-105 to the Pistons (21-5) for their second straight loss.

The loss drops the Celtics to 15-11 on the season and ties them for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference standings. 

Boston started strong, looking composed as they built a 12-point lead in the opening quarter against the Eastern Conference’s top team. But their offense stagnated as the game progressed.

The Celtics produced only 24 points in each of the last three quarters, repeatedly failing to generate open shots against Detroit’s punishing defense.

Jaylen Brown once again carried the scoring load for Boston. He finished with a game-high 34 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists. Derrick White supported him with 31 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter.

The late push wasn’t enough to overcome Detroit’s control. Cade Cunningham led the Pistons with 32 points and 10 assists. He produced a double-double, despite spending a stretch of the fourth quarter on the bench due to foul trouble.

Let’s stick on that Cunningham point, because his big game coincides with a dip in production from one of Boston’s brightest stars from this season:

Jordan Walsh.

His lack of minutes towards the end of the game was curious, especially given how well he defended Cunningham down the stretch in that epic Thanksgiving Eve game that sort of was the catalyst of turning this season around.

Mazzulla explained it away in the postgame as a flow of game thing, saying Anfernee Simons gave them a better look offensively, and that’s what the game needed at that point in time.

“I thought we needed scoring at that time,” said Mazzulla. “We were down multiple possessions. I also felt like the points that Cunningham got weren’t matchup dependent. They were just, he got a lot - he got 6 threes, he made some pick and roll threes.

“And so, I like what [Anfernee Simons] was giving us on the offensive end and what [he] gave us defensively. So I think at that time, we were just looking to score, and kind of have an offensive lineup out there.”

I don’t think it was that, and I don’t think it was his early foul-trouble, either.

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My antennas are up for a potential injury/rest day situation for Walsh in the near future, even with all the rest this team has had of late.

And if it’s not an injury thing, and it really was what Mazzulla described, then that mentality for the 21-year-old needs to change moving forward.

Walsh is, almost without question, Boston’s best defensive player. I know it’s happened seemingly overnight, but the results are the results.

And if you’ve been following this thing closely, you know how efficient he has become as a scorer of late. He’s not putting up 30+ a night, but when he shoots the ball, it’s generally going in.

Whatever you think you lose from him on the offensive end, the gain you get from him defensively outweighs it. And with the rest of the roster having shooters on it the way it does, you should not have to worry about Walsh being a tier or two down from the likes of Brown, White and Payton Pritchard. A fourth option with elite defensive skills is what Bruce Bowen was for the Spurs on their way to three NBA championships from 2003 to 2007. This model has worked for years and years - having a guy like Walsh is almost a luxury item.

Now, is Brown-White-Pritchard even close to Duncan-Parker-Ginobili? Heck no. But that same type of structure is there for Boston to use as a starting point when putting together crunch time lineups.

This was a miss by Mazzulla, and I hope the result on Monday night at TD Garden forces him to realize just how important Walsh has become in a post-Tatum (for now) world.

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Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.