Detroit Pistons defeat Boston Celtics, 87-85

The Celtics' locker room was quiet.

Pin-drop quiet. Heads were down. You would have thought the season was over.

But the feeling of winning has been so fulfilling, so beautiful, that the taste of defeat, even if it was just for the third in 23 games, was awful and tart. And it made them appreciate the winning so much more.

The Celtics' nine-game winning streak ended last night with an 87-85 loss to the Pistons in a nationally televised Eastern Conference showdown at ...

It was like hearing a song that reminds you of an old flame, or maybe walking past a bakery and smelling a pie that takes you back to happy days in the kitchen of your youth.

The Garden rocked, fans stood and stomped, the Celtics and Pistons ran up and down the floor, and we remembered what it used to feel like when basketball mattered and the local NBA season stretched sweetly into mid-June.

Eddie House and Ray Allen hit impossible, stake-driving 3-pointers in the f...

Flip Saunders said it before the game. He said it after the game. The play of these teams on this December night doesn't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. OK, he didn't quite put it like Rick did on the tarmac in "Casablanca," but the Pistons coach wanted to drive home the point that, regardless of the outcome of last night's epic, life, indeed, would go on. For both teams.

He's right, of course. It was, as the cliché goes, one of 82. And today, the Celtics...

It's safe to say Ray Allen's sore right ankle feels good now.

Allen missed the Celtics' previous two games before last night's 87-85 loss to the Pistons at TD Banknorth Garden with an ankle injury that has been bothering him since Nov. 24 at Charlotte. But the seven-time All-Star came back strong, scoring 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting and nailing 3 of 5 3-point attempts, including a tying trey with 18.9 seconds left.

Allen, who also grabbed five rebounds in 38 minute...