The Celtics gave their fans a little preview of the hope that comes with a perfect preseason, then ripped it right back away on opening night.
After Joe Mazzulla’s team rolled through the exhibition slate at 4-0, Boston built what looked like a comfortable cushion against the Detroit Pistons. The Celtics were ahead 28-27 after the first quarter, and by halftime the lead had swelled to around 22 points. But Detroit flipped the script from there, with Cade Cunningham helping the Pistons pour in 76 points in the second half on the way to a 121-113 win.
Boston, led by Jayson Tatum and Paul George, could only manage 55 points after halftime.
That collapse sent Celtics and NBA fans straight to social media, where the reaction was immediate and loud.
"Same stuff. Different year.
"Let's build a 20-some-point lead and see if the opponent can actually catch us. We'll do absolutely nothing to assist their comeback."
NOTHING has changed. At all," a Celtics fan declared.
Another fan pointed the finger at Tatum and Mazzulla, writing, "This was a bad Tatum performance. He’ll be better.
Who won’t be better is Mazzulla. He is such a bad in-game coach.
He doesn’t know how to stop runs. Get away from live by/die by 3’s.
Make defensive changes. Gonna be a long season with Mazz."
Tatum’s stat line backed up the criticism. In a team-high 38 minutes, he finished with 13 points on 6-of-23 shooting, including 0-for-7 from three-point range. He did chip in 11 assists and four rebounds, but the production wasn’t enough to hold off Detroit’s surge.
George was the bright spot for Boston. In his Celtics debut, he scored 38 points, hitting 57.1% of his shots overall and 58.3% from beyond the arc. That 38-point night was the most by a player in a Celtics debut, and he also added three assists.
Defensively, George was active too. He finished with five rebounds and five steals, which fueled talk among some fans that he could be headed for an MVP-level season if the production sticks.
"If you have a real job or are a real person and couldn’t watch a 3:00 PM NBA game on a Tuesday don’t worry ….. You only missed Paul George announcing his MVP candidacy, first halves not mattering, and Ausar Thompson getting a new nickname," they wrote.
Not every reaction was a doom spiral, though. One fan pushed back on the panic and argued that the early reaction was getting ahead of itself.
"I don’t think people understand that it’s a long season and it takes teams a bit to find their collective personality. That can’t happen in the pre-season.
We saw what they want, but the path there goes through playing games. Celtics are fine," the fan posted.
For now, the first regular-season game has given Boston exactly the kind of noise that preseason optimism can’t erase. Whether the Celtics quiet it down will come down to Mazzulla, George, and Tatum.
In Other News...
Pistons Opener Hinted At A Change Fans Have Wanted For Years
The Pistons entered the 2026 offseason determined to modernize an offense that too often settled for too few threes, and their regular-season opener against the Celtics offered the clearest sign yet that the message may have landed. Detroit launched 40 three-pointers in a 121-113 win, a sharp jump from last seasons 30.8 per game, and the shot profile alone looked different enough to catch the eye even before the comeback from a 22-point hole.
Duncan Robinson, Javonte Green, Isaiah Joe and Kevin Huerter all factored into the spread-the-floor approach, giving Detroit the kind of perimeter volume fans have wanted to see for years. One game does not make a season, of course, but after spending the offseason talking about the need to improve from deep, the Pistons at least gave themselves a template worth watching closely as the schedule moves on. [Read more 🡒]
John Collins Already Has The Pistons Facing A Tough Defensive Question
John Collins first night in a Pistons uniform offered an early glimpse of both the upside and the problems Detroit will have to sort through. He gave the team some useful minutes with a block and a few offensive rebounds, the kind of activity that can matter in a game where every possession counts. But the bigger takeaway came on the other end, where Collins had a rough time holding up defensively in his new setting.
Detroit tried to work around it by shifting Collins to center, hoping the matchup would settle in, but the adjustment did not really solve the issue. Paul George found room to score against him, and the problem only looked more complicated when bigger opponents came into play, including Mitchell Robinson. For a Pistons group trying to piece together lineups early, Collins fit may end up being defined less by what he can add and more by how they hide what he gives up. [Read more 🡒]
Javonte Green May Have Forced His Way Into Detroits Rotation
Javonte Green gave the Pistons an immediate jolt off the bench on opening night, and it was the kind of energy Detroit has been looking for as it sorts out the edges of its rotation. In a game where the early-season focus naturally drifted to the leaguewide headlines, Greens scoring burst stood out as one of the more useful takeaways for Detroit, giving the staff a real live example of how he can change the tone of a second unit.
For a team still figuring out how its minutes will settle, those kinds of performances matter. Green did enough in that first look to make the rotation conversation feel a little less theoretical, and the question now is whether that showing was a one-night spark or the start of a more permanent role. [Read more 🡒]