Celtics blow lead and fall to Pistons 111-115

The Celts came out of the gates hot and were able to maintain a ten point lead for three quarters. At one point, Boston led by as much as 19. Despite some great ball movement throughout the game, Boston had no answer for Detroit's paint dominance and fourth quarter surge.

In the absence of Rajon Rondo, Jared Sullinger took the leadership reigns and was absolutely dominant, finishing with a cool 22 points (4-5 from deep), 11 rebounds and 5 assists. Jerryd Bayless continued to his strong play with 25 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

Phil Pressey was efficient as the Cs' starting PG (12 points on 5-8 shooting with 11 assists), and Kelly Olynyk finished with a very nice 11 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks in just 24 minutes.

Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond were Detroit's paint beasts tonight. Drummond swallowed up a whopping 20 boards and shot 9-11, good for 19 points. Greg Monroe tacked on 21 points off of 8-12 shooting to go with 7 boards and a pair of assists.

The Jennings/Stuckey backcourt proved to be a good scoring source for Detroit, as they combined for 46 points.

The Pistons squad surged back with a (tank-friendly) 30-16 fourth quarter. In a heroic effort, Jerryd Bayless launched a three pointer with 7 seconds to go, which went halfway down before popping back out. Immediately thereafter, the Pistons canned a couple free throws to seal it, 111-115.

The Boston Celtics (now 23-54) fly to Atlanta to take on the Hawks Wednesday, April 9th at 7:30 ET.