The NBA season is tipping off at 3 p.m. ET on a Tuesday, which isn’t exactly the easiest time to get people to stop what they’re doing and watch basketball. But this matchup should make it worth finding a screen. Boston visits Detroit in the first game of NBC and Peacock’s opening-night tripleheader, bringing together the East’s two best regular-season teams from a year ago. And both teams have more to prove than just getting a win.

Detroit’s rise has been hard to believe. The Pistons won 14 games in 2023–24, 44 the next year, and 60 last season. Cade Cunningham developed into a First Team All-NBA guard andJalen Duren became an All-Star. Even Ausar Thompson helped turn Detroit into one of the league’s toughest defensive teams. Then Cleveland knocked them out in Game 7 of the second round. Sixty wins got the Pistons plenty of respect, but that ending left a fair question: how much better can this group get once playoff defenses have a full series to figure them out?

Boston has their own rough ending to deal with. The Celtics went 56–26 while Jayson Tatum spent most of the regular season recovering from an Achilles tear, then blew a 3–1 first-round lead to Philadelphia. Now Jaylen Brown's in Philly, and Paul George's in Boston.

I’m still not sold on that trade, but the season won’t wait for anyone to settle the debate. Tatum's back, Derrick White's still here, and Mitchell Robinson gives Boston some of the size they badly needed.

Cade and Tatum Set the Terms

Cunningham and Tatum probably won’t spend much time guarding each other. But they’ll have a lot to do with what everyone else has to deal with. Cade averaged 23.9 points and 9.9 assists last season, and the Cunningham–Duren pick-and-roll is still the engine of Detroit’s offense. Give Cade a step toward the lane and he can finish or drop it off to Duren at the rim. Thompson gives the Pistons an All-Defensive First Team wing who can make Tatum work on the other end, too.

Tatum has a different job. Boston needs him to create the shots they want when the easy threes aren’t there. George can still score and space the floor, White can punish a late rotation, and Robinson can clean up misses. But Brown gave Boston a downhill threat who could get into the paint without needing much help. Tatum’s ability to take away some of that pressure, especially with Thompson making life difficult, will tell us a lot about this version of the Celtics.

The numbers make the style clash pretty hard to miss. Detroit outscored opponents by 14.2 points per game in the paint last season. Boston took just 41% of their shots there, the lowest share in the league. The Pistons were also 28th in made threes, which helps explain the additions of Isaiah Joe and Taurean Prince. They’re trying to give Cade a little more room without giving up the physical identity that got them to 60 wins.

Watch the Last Three Minutes

There’s a good reason to think this one could come down to the wire. All four Boston–Detroit games last season were within three points in the final three minutes. Detroit won three of them, including both games at home. One was a 104–103 game in January, when Brown missed Boston’s chance to win it at the buzzer.

So I’m not expecting the deciding moment to be some heroic jumper. I’ll be watching to see which team can still get to the rim once the defense knows exactly what’s coming. Can Boston get Tatum downhill instead of settling for a contested three? Can they keep Cade and Duren from turning one drive into a layup or a second chance? That’s the pressure point here: Detroit wants to live in the paint, and Boston's spent years doing most of their damage from the outside.

A Detroit win would show that this paint-first formula can still hold up against one of the East’s best, even with a few new faces. A Boston win would be an early sign that Tatum and this reworked roster can handle a physical contender.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com.

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