Boston Celtics defeat Detroit Pistons, 88-79

It is the mystery of the Celtics' playoff run.

What happened to Ray Allen? Can the Celtics win the NBA championship with the Big 2 1/3?

The Celtics stuffed the Detroit Pistons, 88-79, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals last night, but once again, Allen's jump shot was MIA. He made 3 of 10 shots from the floor: All of his makes were layups. Allen did not connect on a jump shot.

He could feel the crowd pulling for him, trying to will the ball through the bas...

No NBA team, the Celtics included, was stingier defensively in the regular season than the Pistons. Even so, Kevin Garnett found a recipe for success against Detroit that worked back then and has worked so far in the postseason, too.

Garnett averaged a team-best 24 points per game - 5.2 more than his overall average - against Detroit this season. He continued his offensive prowess against the Pistons last night, scoring 26 points during the Celtics' 88-79 victory in Gam...

Nine down and seven to go.

When you come right down to it, that's the only relevant issue. The Boston Celtics once needed 16 W's in order to put up championship banner No. 17, and after defeating the Detroit Pistons by an 88-79 score at TD Banknorth Garden last night, they now only need seven.

It was bump-and-grind basketball for sure last night, and, like, that's a surprise? With the one brief exception of that Kelly Tripucka-John Long-Terry Tyler bunch, the Pistons...