At the moment, the Detroit Pistons and the Boston Celtics are two of the hottest teams in the Eastern Conference, both coming off dominant wins in their last game. 

For the home squad, the Pistons notched their largest victory of the season with a 43-point win over the Indiana Pacers, a team they held to just 50 points at halftime, and there is considerable momentum building in Motown. The Celtics, on the other hand, topped the Atlanta Hawks by 26 points on the road, so tonight’s matchup could foreshadow an eventual playoff series several months from now. 

Tonight, the Pistons aim to pick up their 31st victory of the year at the halfway point of the regular season, and a win tonight would also serve to create a 5.5 game lead over the Celtics for first place in the East. 

Over the last month of the season, the Celtics have slowly climbed up the Eastern Conference standings, a surge that was timed just as the New York Knicks have begun to free fall. Entering tonight’s contest, Boston has a 26-15 record with a 1.5 game lead over the Knicks in the Atlantic Division, so the visiting squad is filled with ambition for the remainder of the season, especially once Jayson Tatum rejoins the fold. 

In a five-game snapshot, the Celtics have a 3-2 record in that timespan with a modest two-game winning streak to work with. Last time out, the Celtics rode a 41-point Jaylen Brown performance to a comfortable double-digit win over a talented Hawks unit, so Boston should carry a bit of their own momentum into their duel with the Pistons. 

Against the Hawks, guard Sam Hauser also dropped 30 points with not one, not two but 10 three-pointers on the night in a perimeter shooting display that will be remembered by Boston faithful for quite some time. 

From a health perspective, the Pistons have a relatively clean bill to report, while the Celtics are managing a few minor situations at the moment. Guard Payton Pritchard is day-to-day with an ankle injury and will likely be questionable for tonight’s game. Forwards Josh Minott and Chris Boucher, on the other hand, are slated to miss the battle in Detroit but are expected to rejoin the squad later in the week. 

Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has been in the NBA for more than 20 years. Growing up in the household with a Basketball Hall of Famer in Bernie Bickerstaff, JB figured out what a special team looks like and how they operate. The younger Bickerstaff works to cultivate that type of environment, and he shared his thoughts on how it is working with this specific group of Pistons players on a day-to-day basis. 

“I'm excited to just be a part of this team and be a part of this organization,” Bickerstaff said. “It's not one person ever that does it, it's organizations that do it and its players are a huge part of that. So, I give our guys the credit for us being in this situation. They've worked their tails off. These guys have overcome a lot, like you mentioned, in the past years, and for us to just continue to keep growing, for them to stick together and not bail on one another. To me, that speaks volumes, and that's the reason why they've been able to grow and continue to take steps is because when things got the hardest for this group, they didn't separate from one another. They rallied around one another and bought in more to each other, believed in each other that they could and that's why they find themselves in this position.”

Celtics Player To Watch: Jaylen Brown

In order to beat the Celtics tonight, the Pistons are going to be required to shut down Jaylen Brown. Fresh off a 40-point outing against the Hawks two nights ago, Brown is in quite a rhythm, and he’s by far Boston’s most dangerous player from a shot creation and playmaking standpoint. 

Playing without his partner in crime, Brown has shouldered the brunt of the load for the Celtics this season, but it’s worked out for Boston from a results standpoint. But tonight, Brown will likely have to fend off both Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland at various points if he hopes to find any success against a vaunted Detroit defense that just held the Pacers to 78 points. 

Tip-off between these two Eastern Conference powers is set for 8 pm tonight and can be viewed on Peacock. 

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