Charles Krupa / AP

Celtics star Kevin Garnett, center, had a good stat line against the Pistons on Thursday, but the numbers were deceiving, writes NBCSports.com contributor Mike Celizic.

It makes it easy for the Pistons on defense. They basically played five guys on three Celtics, pretty much ignoring Rondo and center Kendrick Perkins, who took one shot — one! — and piled up all of four points in 27 minutes.

You can’t win if you have to play 3-on-5 at the offensive end and the other guys are getting points from everybody.

But even that’s not all that the Celtics have to fix. They also didn’t take care of the ball as well as they should, committing 12 turnovers to Detroit’s 9. Beyond that, Detroit simply outhustled them, getting to more loose balls and forcing more mistakes. And at the end of the game, when there was still a chance to pull it out, Boston committed the cardinal sin of being caught napping on an in-bounds play, giving point guard Chauncey Billups an easy layup and a vital two points.

Boston’s lucky that Billups is running at less than full speed on a pulled hamstring. After a sub-par performance in Game 1, he somehow gutted his way to 19 points — and every one of them seemed to come when they were most needed.

Watching the Celtics, it was easy to conclude that they’d become too confident of their ability to win at home — until Game 2, they were 9-0 on the parquet. They looked as if they assumed they’d win, and afterwards some of the players admitted that they were a half-step slow too often.

It’s certainly not over for the Celtics, but just two games into this series that’s tied 1-1, their situation is already desperate. Home court was their not-so-secret weapon, and now they’ve given it up to a team that seems incapable of being overwhelmed by the pressure of the playoffs.

The Pistons know they can win this series. They know that Garnett isn’t going to take the game over inside. They know that Boston’s Big Three isn’t going to get any help. And they know they’re going home to the Palace to play a team that has yet to win a road game.

Can you say Pistons in six?

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Nathan Denette / AP

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Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto

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