AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Avery Bradley wasn’t in the mood to talk Saturday morning. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think someone put coal in his game socks. Typically a low-key, soft-spoken and affable guy, Bradley generally accommodates any request from the media.
But he didn’t want to talk at shootaround.
As it turned out, Bradley was just stewing from a poor performance 10 days ago in the same gym. Bradley turned in a 2-for-8, 5-point performance in 38 minutes that night.
But far worse, as a team, the Celtics allowed 119 points to the Pistons during a regulation loss on Dec. 16, which is well out of character for the defense-first squad. They’d only given up more than that in regulation once this season, a Nov. 24 blowout loss to the Hawks As a backcourt, the Celtics allowed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (31 points) and Reggie Jackson (23) run wild, despite (mostly) containing Andre Drummond (16 points, 12 rebounds).
On Dec. 26, the roles were reversed. Bradley set the tone with his hound-dog defense, picking up the Pistons’ guards at half court early and often. On the other side of the ball, he produced a nine-point first quarter (18 points overall) and the Celtics went on to grind out a 99-93 win to improve to 17-13 and win their third straight game overall.
Bradley was quick to praise Jared Sullinger and Jae Crowder for their defensive efforts during postgame, but with a little more prodding, he acquiesced and admitted that he came into Saturday’s tilt with extra motivation.
“I mean, I took this game personally,” Bradley said. “I knew I didn’t play well the last time I was here. I wanted to prove to my teammates that I can play better for them. I’m pretty sure everybody else, we all felt embarrassed because we felt like we should have won this game here (on Dec. 16).
“Tonight we all had a chip on our shoulder and played hard, and made sure it was a win.”
Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy, who’s never bashful when it comes to postgame assessments (or really anything), noted that he assigned Caldwell-Pope to cover Isaiah Thomas, who torched Detroit last time around for 38 points. But according to the transcript of his postgame press conference, Van Gundy also noted that the Pistons couldn’t stop Bradley on Saturday, and lamented, “I can’t put Pope on everyone.”
That said, the Celtics can’t put Bradley on everyone either, and at times that’s hurt them. With Marcus Smart having been on the shelf for more than a month, Bradley’s been saddled with the responsibility of establishing an aggressive tone at both ends of the floor.
“I just wanted to come out and be aggressive on the defensive end, and that got me going,” Bradley said. “I feel like my defensive intensity at the beginning of the game got me going and I was able to hit shots.”
The Celtics had built a 16-point lead with 9:49 to play, but promptly gave up a 9-0 run that turned a potential blowout into a ball game down the stretch. The Pistons actually closed to within two points with 31.9 seconds to play on a Jackson 3-pointer, making it 95-93.
Jonas Jerebko, however, who played just 10:21 and scored just two points, hit the de facto game-winner with 10.7 seconds to go, his only field goal of the night.
“The spacing was excellent, Detroit was scrambling, and Jonas was the open guy,” Stevens said of Jerebko’s late-game heroics.
While 16-point leads can “quickly dissipate,” as Stevens noted, the Celtics never really seemed to lose control of the situation. Had the C’s connected on more than just four of their 23 3-point attempts, they may have blown the Pistons out of their own gym. Outside of Drummond’s 22-point, 22-rebound night, no other Pistons player really jumped off the box score. And they shot just 38 percent as a team.
“As a team, that has to be our identity,” Bradley said of the aggressive defensive posture his team displayed Saturday night in Auburn Hills. “We have to hold each other accountable and bring it every night.”
The next night in “every night” is Sunday, when the Celtics host the Knicks at TD Garden.
