Paul George gave Boston exactly the kind of individual debut the Celtics had hoped for. Detroit made sure it did not matter.
In his first game with the Celtics, George scored a game-high 38 points, the most ever by a Boston player in a debut. He did it efficiently, too, making 12 of 21 shots and 7 of 12 from 3-point range while playing 31 minutes. He also added five steals, five rebounds and three assists, a line that showed how much he was involved on both ends.
But the Pistons erased a 22-point deficit and finished with a 23-0 run in the fourth quarter to beat Boston 121-113, turning George’s night into a reminder that one big performance can be swallowed by a team collapse.
Boston had looked in control for long stretches. The Celtics led 58-45 at halftime after a 15-0 run, then pushed the margin to 22 points early in the third quarter. George was central to that burst, hitting three straight 3-pointers in less than a minute as Boston built its biggest lead.
Detroit kept chipping away. By the end of the third quarter, the Pistons had cut the deficit to six, and the fourth quarter belonged entirely to them. The comeback was the biggest in a league opener since 1997, and Boston became the fifth team in 30 seasons to lose a season-opening game after leading by 22 points.
The contrast was sharpest in the final minutes. George kept Boston within reach, but the Celtics could not stop Detroit’s surge, and the Pistons pulled away to a 13-point lead with 3:33 left after Javonte Green’s fifth 3-pointer capped the 23-0 run.
George did not try to dress up the result.
“I’m not a moral victory guy; it means nothing,” he said.
That line fit the night. The Celtics got the scoring they traded for, and George’s debut was historically productive. But the game also showed how quickly that kind of individual return can be separated from the larger question Boston still has to answer: whether this roster can hold a lead when the game tightens.
The trade that brought George to Boston was one of the summer’s most startling moves, with the Celtics sending All-NBA forward Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia to get him. George’s first game offered an immediate answer on one side of that deal. It did not offer one on the other.
Jayson Tatum finished with 13 points and 11 assists, but he shot just 6 of 23 from the floor and missed all seven of his 3-point attempts. Detroit, meanwhile, got 22 points and nine rebounds from Jalen Duren, 21 points from Duncan Robinson — who made five of nine 3s — and an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double from Ausar Thompson.
For Boston, the opener was a split-screen performance: George producing at a level that justified the move on an individual night, and the team around him losing control of the game in the fourth quarter. That is the tension the Celtics now carry forward.