Pistons vs Celtics: Detroit MI NBA Basketball

DETROIT, Mich. — The NBA season starts in Detroit on Tuesday afternoon, when the Pistons welcome the Boston Celtics in the first game of the league’s opening-day tripleheader. Last season these two clubs held the top two spots in the Eastern Conference, and neither made it to the conference finals.

Detroit’s climb has been steep: 14 wins in 2023-24, 44 the next year and 60 last season, the franchise’s first 60-win year in two decades. That run earned the No. 1 seed before a Game 7 loss at home to Cleveland ended things in the second round.

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff’s group still leans on defense. The Pistons led the league by forcing 16.9 turnovers a game and allowed the third-lowest shooting mark, 44.3 percent. They also beat opponents by 14.2 points per game in the paint.

Shooting is the fix the front office chased. Detroit made 902 threes last season, 28th in the league, so it traded for Isaiah Joe, a career 40 percent shooter from deep in Oklahoma City, and added John Collins from the Clippers to play power forward. Isaiah Stewart, Tobias Harris and Caris LeVert are gone. Cade Cunningham, an All-NBA first-team pick, stays at the center of it all, and Jalen Duren signed a long-term extension after lengthy talks.

Boston looks different too. The Celtics shipped Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia, and Jayson Tatum is back from the Achilles tear he suffered in the 2025 playoffs. Paul George, 36, arrived in the Brown deal, and center Mitchell Robinson is also set for his Boston debut.

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