After a lackluster outing in New York, Boston was looking for a bounce back in the Motor City. Jaylen Brown impressed with 41 points (5-of-9 from 3, 12-of-15 from the line), six rebounds, and four assists, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard chipped in 15 and 21 each, but the Celtics lost to the Pistons 119-113.
As CelticsBlog’s Mark Aboyoun noted before the tip, it’s Hugo Gonzalez time. The 19-year-old rookie had an electric debut at Madison Square Garden and he and his energy were injected into the starting lineup (replacing Sam Hauser) against the Pistons. Gonzalez didn’t disappoint. The box score won’t exactly impress (no points with two steals and a block), but he matched minutes with MVP candidate Cade Cunningham and pestered him whenever they went head-to-head.
In the loss to the Knicks, Joe Mazzulla identified four areas of controllables: offensive and defensive rebounding and the turnover differential.
“It’s holding them accountable to the things that they can control. That’s a high, high standard. To me, you can’t budge on that,”
Mazzulla said that the team played twelve then twenty-four good minutes in the first two games. A strong push in the first quarter against to the Pistons led to a 11-point lead. They forced five turnovers for six points and held Detroit to 33% shooting from the field. The Celtics also won the fourth 32-25, but still haven’t played a complete 48 in their first 0-3 start since 2013-2014.
Unfortunately, rebounding remains the biggest area for improvement. Jalen Duren alone owned the Celtics with seven offensive boards to contribute to Detroit’s 18 for 30 second chance points. Fouls and subsequent free throws have been an issue, too. Detroit ballooned their 2-point halftime lead to 13 with sixteen trips to the charity stripe in the third quarter. On the night, the Pistons had a 36-24 edge.
Detroit's last six possessions in their win over Boston:
-Miss
-OR
-Miss
-OR
-dunk for two points
-Miss
-OR
-layup for two points
-Miss
-OR
-layup for two points
-two free throws
-Miss
-OR
-layup for two points
-Miss
Six possessions, five offensive rebounds, 10 points. — Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) October 26, 2025
Boston is still maintaining their identity as a three-point shooting team despite the departures of many of its shooters. They took 43 and 44 shots from behind the arc against the Sixers and Knicks respectively and went 15-of-45 in Detroit.
The Celtics will again look for their first win of the season in New Orleans tomorrow night at 8 pm EST.
The San Francisco 49ers struggled during their 26-15 defeat to the Houston Texans on October 26 at NRG Stadium. Moreover, the injury bug continues to hit the Niners weekly, with three players suffering injuries.
Linebacker Dee Winters (knee), defensive tackle Jordan Elliott (ankle), and defensive end Sam Okuayinonu (ankle) are the latest players to deal with an injury. Nonetheless, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan stated that these injuries don’t seem like long-term issues, per The Athletic.
While San Francisco can’t avoid the injury bug, running back Christian McCaffrey isn’t dwelling on it, saying it’s simply part of life in the NFL.
“It’s the NFL and everybody has a jersey for a reason, and everybody’s on the team for a reason,” McCaffrey said postgame. “They can help us win football games. Obviously, it sucks losing guys—just transparently. You never want to lose anyone, especially core players, but it’s a next-man-up mentality. When that happens, you have to be really detailed.”
Even with the defense dealing with injuries, George Kittle didn’t mince words, calling out the offense for failing to give the defensive group enough support.
“I thought our defense played really well,” Kittle told reporters after the loss. “They were flying around, hitting people. If you’re holding the team to four field goals and just two touchdowns, our offense has to score points.
“When you’re three and out repeatedly, we’re not really doing anything to help our young defense that’s adjusting and figuring out the way they want to play football. I think this is really on the offense. I was really proud of how our defense played today.”
It wasn’t the best afternoon for McCaffrey on the ground. The 49ers star recorded eight carries for 25 rushing yards while in the air he did have three receptions for 43 receiving yards. Nonetheless, more production is expected from the veteran.
The offense struggled to find rhythm, going three-and-out on six of its nine possessions, including the first three drives. On defense, missed tackles and blown coverages on third downs proved costly throughout the game.
Playing without Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, and Bryce Huff only added to the team’s issues. San Francisco failed to sack Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud and pressured him twice. While Kittle acknowledged the offense didn’t deliver, Shanahan was more direct when discussing the loss to Houston.
“They kicked our ass,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said (h/t Vic Tafur of The Athletic). “And we’ve got to take it like men and come back, hopefully a little pissed off, and play better next week than we did this week. … There’s not much to sugarcoat. I was real disappointed in how we looked for all four quarters.”
It’ll be worth watching whether the 49ers can regroup in Week 9 when they take on the New York Giants, a team still trying to recover from a defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles.
For New York, though, the real blow came when rookie running back Cam Skattebo was carted off midway through the second quarter of the 38-20 loss on October 26 after suffering a severe dislocation to his right ankle.
