Detroit Pistons Stun Boston Celtics 121-113 With Huge Opening Day Comeback

As the basketball world descended upon the Motor City on Tuesday afternoon, the Detroit Pistons completed an impressive second half comeback to top the Boston Celtics by a 121-113 margin in the NBA’s season opener. 

The Pistons had a shaky start at first and allowed the Celtics to rack up a healthy lead by halftime, much of which was courtesy of Paul George. Playing in his first game with Boston, the veteran scorer found his rhythm early and ended up unloading a game-high 38 points on the Pistons defense. 

Once George started tipping the scale in the Celtics favor through two quarters, Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff reminded the team of their objective with so much basketball still left to play. 

”We had a good talk at halftime and we lit that fire a little bit better,” Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham said after the game.

After the break, the Pistons began to claw their way back into the matchup on the back of Javonte Green’s perimeter shooting. Coming off the bench, Green drilled a series of corner threes in the third quarter as part of an 18-0 Detroit run in less than three minutes of action. With that quick-fire production coming from Woo, the Pistons entered the fourth quarter trailing by just six points, so there was still work left to do. 

In the final frame, Duncan Robinson stepped up to hit a number of big shots from beyond the arc as well, finishing the game with five triples to his credit. In total, Robinson scored 21 points against a stingy Celtics defense that made life difficult for Detroit during the first half. 

During the offseason, the Pistons made it a point to surround Cunningham with more shooters to help with floor spacing. Although Robinson and Green are holdovers from last season, Detroit’s All-NBA floor general was thankful for their contributions after the season-opening win. 

”It’s a blessing,” Cunningham said. “It makes my life easy. It makes JD’s, AT’s life easier. We just gotta keep getting our camaraderie, our synergy a little bit better, but that’ll come as the season goes.”

As for Cunningham, the All-Star struggled with turnovers early on once the Celtics sent multiple defenders to double-team the playmaker, but the Pistons adapted at the break and had better ball movement in the second half. That’s when their shots started to fall, so there’s at least a correlative link between the two. Overall, Cunningham posted 22 points, four rebounds, eight assists, one steal and one block against the Celtics for a fairly standard stat-line from the Pistons’ leader. 

Moving to the frontcourt, John Collins had a bit of a rocky regular season debut for Detroit, but his lukewarm production was ballooned by Jalen Duren’s strong showing. Playing primarily against Mitchell Robinson and Neemias Quetta, Duren put up 22 points and nine rebounds on an efficient shooting effort. 

Rounding out the starting lineup for Detroit, Ausar Thompson quietly had an impactful double-double with 11 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and a steal, so the fourth-year wing should receive some plaudits for his performance against the Celtics as well. 

Overall, the Pistons start off the 2026-27 campaign with a 1-0 mark before heading down to face the Miami Heat on Friday, Oct. 23 at 8 pm.