"The best defense of the year, by far, all game, until the fourth quarter when we turned it down a little bit," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "Active hands. Physical. Got up in [their] bodies. It was really neat to see. It was nice.
"We've been good defensively all year. But tonight was our best."
The Celtics limited the Pistons to 34.7 percent shooting and scored 23 points off 17 Detroit turnovers. Boston also limited Detroit to an opponent season-low 10 points and 18.8 percent shooting in the second quarter.
"Defensively, we were very sound," said Celtics forward Kevin Garnett, who had 8 points and 12 rebounds. "I thought we were communicating. Tonight was one of those nights where your offense looks [terrible]. This is when you know what your team is supposed to do.
"Defensively, we were very sound. Very in the flow. And that's what carried us."
Detroit guard Rip Hamilton, who missed all eight field goal attempts, said, "Boston just played great defensively. I thought we could have played better, but it was just one of those games."
Video of Iverson's introductory news conference was shown before the game, with the perennial All-Star talking about bringing the franchise a championship. Iverson also received a loud welcome when he was announced, but it went downhill from there, as he finished with 10 points on 4-of-11 shooting and four assists in 31 minutes.
"Obviously, it's going to take time because it's a different look," Iverson said. "It's a different flow. I'm a totally different player than they're used to playing with and we are just going to have to get used to each other."
Garnett viewed the Pistons as a much different team than the one run by his good friend, Chauncey Billups, who led Detroit to an NBA title in 2004 but was sent to Denver in the Iverson deal.
"The armory doesn't look the same on this team," Garnett said. "I'm not taking anything away from AI. He's a great player. Put him in. But when a team is cohesive and is joined as one, you know it's different. It's very different."
