It was supposed to be embarrassing. Humiliating. Thursday night’s Boston Celtics–Detroit Pistons game featured two teams from the same conference but practically speaking, were in two different leagues. Boston was the NBA’s best team. Detroit had not won in two months. The Celtics were coming off an impressive 3–1 West Coast road trip. The Pistons entered the game riding a 27-game losing streak.
“It’s an NBA game, they’re NBA players, they’re healthy, they’re playing really hard,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said before the game, adding, “and they’ve been in a lot of games.”
Hardly a ringing endorsement.
