BOSTON
The Detroit Pistons’ relaxed attitude is finally paying off with some road wins.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 25 points and Tobias Harris had 21 to lead balanced scoring that carried the Pistons to a 121-114 win over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night.
Andre Drummond added 20 points and 17 rebounds, one night after he was ejected in the second quarter of a victory at Charlotte for a flagrant 2 foul.
Marcus Morris had 20 points and Ish Smith 19 for the Pistons, who had lost eight of their first nine road games before winning away from home on consecutive nights.
“We’re having fun,” Drummond said. “The more we play like that the better the season is going to be.”
The Pistons beat the Hornets by 23 points a night earlier.
“Coming in with the problems we’ve had on the road, to play the way we’ve played the last two nights against two teams that are over .500 and have good personnel, to be on a back-to-back is a heck of a win,” Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy said.
Isaiah Thomas paced the Celtics with 27 points, and Kelly Olynyk scored a season high 19. Boston had won five of seven.
“It’s disappointing, but like I said, they were making shots, man,” Celtics guard Avery Bradley said. “Hats off to those guys. They played well. Their starters played very well. (We’ve) just got to move on to the next game.”
The Pistons shot 55.2 percent. Boston finished at 44 percent, going 15 of 42 on 3-point attempts.
“They made shots,” Olynyk said. “They made shots when they needed to make shots. They made them four quarters in a row.”
Detroit used a 9-0 spree midway through the fourth quarter to open a 103-95 edge with 5:08 to play after Boston went on an 11-0 run to take its first lead since early in the opening period. Morris and Harris each hit a 3-pointer during the Pistons’ spurt.
Detroit pushed its lead to 112-101 on Smith’s basket before Boston closed within four points in the final 30 seconds.
The Pistons were shooting better than 55 percent midway through the third quarter and opened their biggest lead of the game, 90-80, on Jon Leuer’s dunk.
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less