5 takeaways: Celtics earn win of the year over East-leading Pistons

For the last couple years, Boston has always been the hunted, not the hunter. 

Teams would go up against them, and treat it like their game of the year. Well, on Wednesday when the 15-2 Pistons walked into the TD Garden, the Cs played with a different energy — they wanted to knock off the hottest team in the East. 

Boston snapped Detroit’s 13 game win streak, pulling out a 117-114 thrilling upset win. 

Here are five takeaways from the Celtics thrilling win over the Pistons… 

Derrick White hasn’t looked like himself to start the season. While he’s been his normal self on the defensive end, offensively he has struggled mightily, especially from three. Whether or not it was the big game feel, or he finally figured something out, it worked as White looked like his old self. 

“Felt good,” White said. “Feels good to help the team win. Feels good to see some go in.” 

The guard delivered in the second half, finishing with 27 points and 7 rebounds. White was also feeling himself from deep, connecting on 6-for-8 of his attempts in the final 24 minutes. 

As he usually does, White came through in the clutch on the defensive side as well. The guard swiped the ball away from Cade Cunningham with less than 20 seconds to go to put the Celtics in the driver's seat for a win. 

“I told somebody one game, ‘I might not make anything else, but I’ll make a big one,’” White said. 

This version of White clearly elevates Boston into a different level in terms of competitiveness. To have a true No. 2 option behind Jaylen Brown’s 33 points makes it much easier to play a sustained level of good basketball against really good teams. 

Boston was off to a sluggish start on the offensive end, with Brown shooting 1-for-8 and White having yet to explode. The unlikely man that stepped up turned out to be Baylor Scheierman. 

Head coach Joe Mazzulla credits Scheireman’s ability to step in and contribute on a big level to the Celtics’ player development staff. 

“It has a lot to do with him, it has a lot to do with the player development staff,” Mazzulla said.  “He can work through failure. He can work through mistakes.” 

The Creighton product provided an immediate spark, knocking down two triples and piling in 10 points through the second quarter. While he didn’t score in the second half, his ability to step in and turn the tide was crucial for Boston tonight. The forward also went toe-to-toe defensively with Cunningham in the final minutes.

“He kind of kept us in the game,” White said. “Defensively, he’s just super solid.” 

Scheierman is one of the many players on the Celtics bench who has shown promise in spurts but has yet to fully piece it together. His ability to hit threes certainly makes him a fit in Mazzulla’s system if he can become a reliable option. 

There was no hotter team coming into Wednesday than Detroit. 

The Pistons were an East leading 15-2, and had won 13 straight games. A 14th win would’ve set a franchise record for an up-and-coming squad. 

The Celtics definitely knew that going in, making it all the more reason to get up for the game. 

In a season where a championship isn’t expected, for better or worse, it has been hard for the team and fans alike to get up for a game. There also haven’t been many games with that classic “big game feel” that Boston has been accustomed to playing in really since Jayson Tatum and Brown arrived in the city. 

Wednesday had that feeling, and the Celtics played like it was a big game. It’s nice to know that the Cs can still elevate and play to their competition, even if they’re clearly not as good in the long run. 

And at 10-8, who knows? Maybe this Celtics team can give a team like the Pistons a serious run come the spring. 

Even in defeat, Cunningham looked like a bona fide superstar on the parquet. 

The guard finished with a game-high 42 points and was 14-for-16 from the line. He also chipped in 8 rebounds and 5 assists. 

Cunningham nearly dragged his team back from the dead too, baiting Jordan Walsh into a bad foul at halfcourt to get to the line for three free throws to tie the game. Whether or not the moment was too big or just poor timing, Cunningham clanked what would have been the game-tying free throw off the rim. 

Even with the miss, Boston will have its hands full for years to come whenever Cunningham stands across the court. 

The Celtics haven’t been the most stellar team in the clutch this season. Before Wednesday, the Cs were 3-6 in clutch time. Detroit was 10-1 — a big reason why its record is as good as it is. 

In the NBA, clutch time is referred to the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime in which a game is within five points. 

On Wednesday, Cunningham and the Pistons appeared to have the Celtics right where they wanted them as they erased a seven-point deficit and retook the lead in the final minutes. 

But Boston — led by its best two players in Brown and White — made the crucial plays down the stretch. As mentioned earlier, White came up with a big time turnover with less than 20 seconds to go and with Boston up just one point. 

On Cunningham’s missed free throw, Brown had a big time box out to allow Payton Pritchard to fly in for the rebound. 

When they needed them most, the Celtics who have championship DNA came through in a big game.