Celtics strong out of the break, rout Pistons
Detroit — Daniel Theis did his part to add to Germany’s big day.
The Boston rookie scored a career-high 19 points to lift the Celtics to a 110-98 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Friday night. Afterward, Theis tried to bring some attention to a surprising Olympic victory for his native country.
“It’s a good day for me. Germany beat Canada in hockey, we won here, so I’m happy,” Theis said. “When I was at breakfast and (assistant coach) Scott Morrison walked in, I was just smiling, because he’s from Canada.”
Germany advanced to the Olympic title game with that victory, giving Theis some bragging rights before he even took the court against Detroit. Then the 6-foot-8 forward shot 8 of 10 from the field and had seven rebounds.
Kyrie Irving added 18 points for Boston. Jayson Tatum scored 11 of his 15 points in the first half.
The Celtics, who went into the AllStar break on a three-game losing streak, returned with a solid win on the road. Boston took control by outscoring the Pistons 38-21 in the second quarter.
“I thought in the first quarter we looked a little slow reacting in transition,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “But after that, I thought we were pretty good. Bench was great all night on both ends.”
Boston pulled within one game of Toronto for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
Blake Griffin scored 17 points for Detroit but shot just 5 of 19 from the field.
Theis eclipsed his previous career high of 12 points. He played an important role after Aron Baynes, the starting center for the Celtics, went to the locker room in the first half with a left elbow injury. Baynes played only 2:39.
Ish Smith made his first eight shots and finished with 20 points for the Pistons. Detroit led 39-37 in the second quarter before a 21-5 run by Boston. The Celtics were ahead 61-49 at halftime.
The lead was only four late in the third before Boston scored seven straight points — five by Irving. The Celtics broke the game open at the start of the fourth, pushing the lead to 20.
“I thought we were really good in the first quarter, and then we got ourselves back into it in the third, but we had one stretch where we had three wide-open 3s in about 30 seconds — (Reggie) Bullock had two on one possession — and we couldn’t knock any of them down,” Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy said. “Those are the stretches that kill comebacks.”