Boston 98, Detroit 80

Another trouncing of the Pistons, again keyed by our bench. This one wasn't even as close as the final score.

[recap] [box score]

I don't really know why our bench steps up in the games it does. The second unit was great against Detroit like two weeks ago, fairly ineffective in five intervening games, and then again the deciding factor tonight. But I love the fact that we're winning these big games against quality oppenents while getting rather pedestrian efforts from the Big Three. I don't like that we are relying so much on Pierce and Ray and KG to beat the Atlantas and Torontos, but as long as our bench is there when we need it to be, we should be okay.

Rajon Rondo has been fantastic the last two nights. I want to write a longer post about him sometime soon, so I'll keep my comments relatively short, but we're so much better when he's playing like he has the last couple times out, aggressive on offense, testing the defense, distributing. 15/8/7 the other night against the Knicks, and then 18 points and eight assists tonight against the Pistons. When he's playing like this, we're very tough to beat. How we can get him to assert himself every night out remains a mystery, but it should be a priority.

Next game is Friday night at Minnesota (8 p.m. Eastern, no national TV). I love when we play the Timberwolves. So many of their players are former Celtics, so it's fun to see those guys play. Al Jefferson is blossoming into the elite power forward we thought he could be, and Ryan Gomes is one of my favorite Celtics of all-time. I even like Sebastian Telfair. Looking forward to this one.