Celtics Open at Home Against the Champs and Mitchell Robinson's Old Teammates

The Celtics play their home opener Friday night at TD Garden against the New York Knicks, and both teams walk in sore. The Celtics announced the matchup as their home opener presented by TD.

Let's recap Tuesday, because it was rough. Boston went to Detroit and led 72-50 with 8:32 left in the third quarter. Then the Celtics went 15-for-40 from the field and got outscored 71-41 the rest of the way, including a 23-0 Pistons run in the fourth, and lost 121-113, according to the game preview distributed by CBS Sports. Twenty-three to nothing. In the fourth quarter. Of the first game.

Paul George was the bright spot, with a game-high 38 points, including 11 of Boston's first 14 points in the second half while the lead was ballooning. Then he took just eight more shots the rest of the night. "We've got to try to find a play - big stop, big shot whatever it is - to kind of end those (runs) as quick as possible," Derrick White said. "And we just weren't able to find it."

George is in green because of the summer's biggest move. On July 6, the Celtics traded Jaylen Brown, their top scorer last season, to the Philadelphia 76ers for George, according to the preview. George is the NBA's ninth-leading active scorer.

And Brown had a nice Tuesday. He and LeBron James and the 76ers beat the Knicks 106-100 at Madison Square Garden on the night New York got its championship rings and raised the banner for the franchise's first title in 53 years. The Knicks led by 10 three times in the second quarter, then the 76ers closed the third on an 11-0 run. Jalen Brunson went 1 for 5 in the fourth, including a missed turnaround with 3:46 left that would have given New York the lead.

"I think it's good for us to, you know, kind of get knocked down off the mountain, humble ourselves, put our egos in check and see what's going to happen," Brunson said.

Here's the subplot. Mitchell Robinson, a piece of that Knicks title team, signed a three-year deal with Boston on July 6, the same day as the George trade, after Knicks owner James Dolan made clear he wouldn't go into the second apron of the luxury tax to keep the whole roster together. New York brought back everyone else from its rotation. Andre Drummond, Robinson's replacement as Karl-Anthony Towns' backup, had 12 points and 14 rebounds Tuesday while Towns battled foul trouble.

Robinson's Celtics debut was quiet: four points, three rebounds, two blocks and two turnovers in 18 minutes, and Boston was outscored by 8 with him on the floor, the Globe reported. He signed for three years and $47.4 million. He was the Knicks' longest-tenured player, a guy who came in as a second-round rookie on a 17-65 team in 2018-19 and waited eight years for the title. He also owned the Detroit loss. "It starts with me. I'm obviously one of the best defensive bigs in the league and I didn't show it that night," he said. He says Friday isn't personal. "It doesn't really matter that I'm playing my former team," he said Thursday. "It's more so just trying to bounce back from what happened two nights ago."

Knicks coach Mike Brown isn't buying the calm. "At the end of the day, we want to kick his (butt) like he probably wants to kick ours," Brown said.

Dez's take: you can lose a lot of games in an 82-game season, but blowing 22 in Detroit with a 23-0 run against you is the kind of thing that gets talked about until you give people something else to talk about. Friday is the something else. Home crowd, the champs in the building, a big man who used to be theirs, and George trying to prove one hot half wasn't a fluke. If the Celtics come out flat in their own building after that, then we've got a real conversation.

Celtics legend Paul Pierce stopped by Thursday's practice at the Auerbach Center, for whatever that's worth to the vibes. Tipoff is Friday night at TD Garden. Both teams are 0-1, both have had two days to stew on it, and somebody leaves Friday at 0-2.