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Robinson gets his play called, leads Celtics past Pistons
The Boston Celtics tore a page from the New York Knicks' playbook to make Nate Robinson feel at home. That helped the Celtics put their most embarrassing loss of the season behind them.
Robinson, acquired from the Knicks in a deadline deal to boost the Celtics' bench scoring, made three 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter in Boston's 105-100 road victory over Detroit on Tuesday night. During practice on Monday, Boston coach Doc Rivers introduced a set play the Knicks used to free up Robinson on the perimeter. Robinson responded with 14 points. "It made a big difference," Robinson said after his fourth game with the Celtics. "We've still got a lot of work to do on it but guys are learning it pretty fast. It's pretty cool. The guys ran it pretty well for only one day of practice." Following Saturday's shocking home loss to New Jersey, Rivers was ready to try anything. He called Robinson into his office and told the pint-sized point guard he would add a play to make him more comfortable. The catch was that Robinson had to act like a coach and teach the play, which requires crisp ball movement, to his teammates. "He said, 'I want you to teach the play'," Robinson said. "It's kind of different. I'm teaching K.G. (Kevin Garnett), Ray (Allen), Paul (Pierce), Sheed (Rasheed Wallace). I'm like, 'Wow, this is awesome.' "It's something I can tell my kids one day." The Celtics have only been hearing bad things about themselves since losing to the 6-53 Nets. They were relieved to get back on the court and redeem themselves. "It's a long season and you definitely have your ups and downs," Allen said. "When you hit a skid, you've just got to stick together and weather the storm. When everybody's minds and hearts are in the right place, it recycles itself and you go on an upward swing." The upward swing didn't begin until the fourth quarter. The Pistons led 75-72 but Robinson's 3-point outburst fueled a 17-6 run that put the Celtics ahead to stay. Glen Davis provided the first spark, scoring Boston's first six points in the quarter. Rivers felt his bench was the difference in the game. "The two things they did was first, on the defensive end, they gave us great energy," he said. "Tony (Allen) and Marquis (Daniels) stopped dribble penetration and Baby and Shelden (Williams) stopped offensive rebounds and they got stops. And then they executed the offense. They ran one play and that was Nate's play and that's all we ran that entire stretch." Boston overcame an ordinary performance from its starting five, though Rajon Rondo hit double figures in assists for the seventh straight game with 11. Paul Pierce returned to action after a three-game absence with a sprained right thumb but he played passively, contributing just nine points, one rebound and one assist. "Paul really struggled out there but that's fine," Rivers said. "You know that's going to happen. The bottom line is we have to use these games to get Paul going. He'll be better [Wednesday against Charlotte] and he'll be better the game after that." Allen had a team-high 18 points but Garnett was held to 14 points by Pistons rookie Jonas Jerebko. Rasheed Wallace added 10 points in place of Kendrick Perkins, who missed his first game this season with flu-like symptoms. The Pistons, who lost their fourth straight, endured two more injury scares. Tayshaun Prince rolled his left ankle after tumbling over Ben Gordon, who hit the floor after driving to the basket late in the third quarter. Prince was able to return with 8:23 remaining. Ben Wallace, one of two Pistons who has played every game, injured his right knee with 1:13 remaining when Pierce fouled him. Wallace missed both free throws, then needed assistance to return to the locker room. Wallace was walking with a limp afterward and the Pistons listed him as day-to-day. Poor bench play and another fourth-quarter letdown doomed Detroit. The Pistons had five reserves in the game during the pivotal stretch early in the fourth. By the time coach John Kuester brought all five starters back, his team was down 89-81. It never got closer than three points the rest of the way. Detroit's top reserves, Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, shot 5-for-16 while combining for 16 points. That wasted a strong outing by Jerebko, who had 16 points and 10 rebounds. "Teams like the Celtics capitalize on every opportunity because that's what they do," Gordon said. "We had a small window of opportunity where we could have changed things around but they played well."