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Lack of rest not slowing Celtics at home

May 22, 2008 - 12:37 PM Detroit at Boston 8:30 pm EDT Eastern Conference finals Celtics lead, 1-0

BOSTON (Ticker) - The Boston Celtics try to claim a two-games-to-none advantage in the Eastern Conference finals when they host the Detroit Pistons in Game Two on Thursday.

Despite having just one day to recover from a hard-fought seven-game series against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference semifinals, the Celtics on Tuesday claimed an 88-79 victory over the Pistons in Game One.

Kevin Garnett collected 26 points and nine rebounds and Paul Pierce scored 22 as Boston improved to a perfect 9-0 at home during the postseason despite playing their 10th game in the last 20 days.

"This was a perfect game for them to come in and try to steal one, and we were aware of that," Pierce said. "They probably figured we were tired from the last series."

"Any time you can get some rest I always feel like it's a good thing," Garnett said. "We say rest is never a bad thing. But I don't think anybody in that locker room was thinking about anything other than what's the task at hand, and rest was not an option, so we weren't even think about that."

Tayshaun Prince scored 16 points and Richard Hamilton added 15 for Detroit.

Chauncey Billups finished with just nine points on 3-of-6 shooting in his first game back since injuring his right hamstring in Game Three in the conference semifinals against Orlando on May 7.

Though cleary affected by the injury in the series opener, Billups is optimistic that his play will improve.

"(The hamstring) started to loosen up for me a little in that fourth quarter," Billups said. "It took a little while. Like I told the guys, we can't overreact to this game. We haven't played in a week and I haven't played in two weeks. I saw a couple of gaps that I will take advantage of."

But its on the defensive end where Detroit may need Billups the most as they allowed the Celtics to shoot 52 percent (36-of-69) from the field in Game One.

"We weren't in the right situation on some defensive rotations, and when you do that, it messes up the whole team," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. "And the whole team looks a step slow because you've got one guy out of place at times. So we've got to look at some film and make sure that we get a little sharper on that, no question."