BOSTON — Before Wednesday’s game against the Pistons — the final one before the All-Star break — Celtics interim coach Joe Mazzulla was asked what his message to his players would be going into the week off.
“It depends on how tonight’s game goes,” Mazzulla said.
“I have five answers,” he added. “I have five suggestions depending on the results of tonight.”
Safe to say, one of them was what he was hoping for.
Wednesday could have served as something of a trap game for the Celtics, less than 24 hours removed from an exhausting loss in Milwaukee and with flights to vacations ready to be boarded. But they approached it with the seriousness it required, even against the lowly Pistons. The returns of Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum showed that, and the duo followed through by leading a thorough 127-109 victory at TD Garden as the C’s went into the break on a well-deserved high note.
Tatum scored 38 points — including a career-high 24 in the third quarter — with nine rebounds and seven assists, and Smart returned from an 11-game absence to stuff the stat sheet with nine points, seven rebounds, six assists and six steals. Malcolm Brogdon, a night after logging 39 minutes, provided another big bench boost with 25 points.
The C’s won seven of their final nine games going into the All-Star break as they stayed atop the Eastern Conference.
