DETROIT (AP) — Jaylen Brown scored 33 points and the NBA-leading Boston Celtics won their eighth straight game, beating the short-handed Detroit Pistons 129-102 on Friday night.
Boston improved to 56-15 — an .800 winning percentage. Detroit is tied with Washington at the bottom of the league at 12-58 — 44 games behind the Celtics.
Peyton Pritchard added 20 points, and Derrick White had 19 points and 11 assists. Jayson Tatum sat out against Detroit to rest an ankle for the second time in five days, also missing a 119-94 home victory Monday night.
James Wiseman had a season-high 24 points for Detroit, and Jaden Ivey had 16. The Pistons have dropped nine straight against Boston.
The Pistons were missing their top five post players in Jalen Duren (back), Stanley Umude (ankle), Simone Fontecchio (toe), Isaiah Stewart (hamstring) and Ausar Thompson (illness). That left them with a starting backcourt of Tosan Evboumwan, Troy Brown Jr. and Wiseman.
Tied at at 43 in the second period, Boston took over in a stretch that included parts of the second and third quarters. The Celtics had a 47-21 run to take a 90-64 lead with 6:10 left in the third.
Brown finished with 17 points in the third to help Boston take a 104-83 lead. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla emptied the bench in the fourth.
UP NEXT
Celtics: At Chicago on Saturday night.
Pistons: Host New Orleans on Sunday.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
