The Celtics lost to the Pistons 96-81 on Sunday in Detroit. The loss brings their record to an even .500 this season at 15-15. They also drop another away game making their away record stand at 4-7. The team was making strides towards getting back into the thick of things, but has recently begun to falter again. They shot just one quarter of basketball in which they scored more than 20 points.

The Celtics leading scorer was Paul Pierce who scored 18 in the game. O’Neil added 11 rebounds to lead the team while Rondo had 10 assists to lead all. The Celtics started off the game scoring 26, which was met by the Pistons. After that point, they scored just 55 compared to 70 by the Pistons. Their low point came in the 2nd quarter when they scored just 16 points. The Celtics have been short-handed as some key players have missed some time.

The Pistons have been playing much better lately, but are still dead last in their division. The team is just 11-22 on the year with 8 of those wins coming at home. The Pistons scored 20 or more in each quarter including an impressive 2nd quarter where they scored 29. They were led by Monroe who scored 17 in the contest. The Pistons have been descent at home and took advantage of a Boston team that has been anything but consistent this season. Boston must get healthy and figure out what worked when they were on a 5 game win streak not long ago.