By taking care of the hapless Detroit Pistons. After two nail biting road games to start the season and one blow out the wrong way it was a great win for the C's. The Pistons are a bad team, and in this shortened NBA season you need to beat the bad teams, especially at home. Jermaine O'Neal finally broke out of his complete funk and Paul Pierce returned to the lineup with a well rounded effort on both ends of the floor.
Random Thoughts after the jump.
The Captain made everything look better for the first unit, restoring order to the offense. His stat line was a solid 12/4/5 on 50% shooting with only 1 turnover.
Another side effect of Pierce's return was that Rondo reigned back his aggressiveness, only taking 8 shots and earning no trips to the free throw line. He also had only 5 assists. He played well, but more in line with the role we've seen in the past when the Big 3 share the lineup with him.
Jermaine O'Neal finally showed up tonight with 19 points and 7 rebounds, Detroit has a rather small and weak front court to challenge him and he took advantage. Hopefully he can build on this success to give the C's some offense going forward.