Pistons beat Celtics for 7th win in 9 games

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AUBURN HILLS — The Pistons were in the running for the NBA's worst team two weeks ago.

That's no longer the case — for now.

The Pistons on Sunday beat the Boston Celtics for the second time in five days, a 96-81 victory that gives them seven wins in their last nine games.

"I've always said that things can go from bad to good in a hurry in this league," Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said. "The thing is, things can go from good to bad just as fast, and we need to remember that we are far from a finished product."

The Pistons showed rough edges against Boston, shooting less than 38 percent from the floor and 63 percent from the free-throw line, but dominated the elderly Celtics in the effort stats.

Detroit shot 46 free throws to just 15 for Boston, had a 29-6 edge in second-chance points, and had a 40-13 advantage in points off turnovers.

"I thought the second unit came in and changed the game in the second quarter," Frank said. "They turned up the intensity, and we were able to maintain that for the rest of the night.

"Look at the points off turnovers, free throws and second-chance points. That's all effort."

A lot of that effort came from Jason Maxiell, who finished with 10 rebounds. The Pistons' hot streak coincided with him replacing Ben Wallace in the starting lineup, and Maxiell's teammates don't think that is a coincidence.

"Max has been great since he came into the lineup, but the important thing is that we've got our rotation working now, with Body (Wallace) coming off the bench," said Greg Monroe, who had his 16th double-double (17 points, 10 rebounds). "He's a very good rebounder, and that obviously helps me, even if he's taking some of those away from me."

To be fair to Boston, the Pistons haven't been beating the Celtics team that won the 2008 title. Paul Pierce is 34, Ray Allen is 36 and Kevin Garnett is not only 35, he missed the game due to personal reasons.

Rajon Rondo turns 26 later this week, but even he couldn't help the Celtics after picking up two technical fouls in a span of five seconds and getting thrown out of the game in the third quarter.

"We just pretty much gave them everything they wanted tonight," a frustrated Pierce said. "They were able to run the ball on the break, get offensive rebounds on top of that, and we turned the ball over far too many times."

Still, the Celtics expect to be a playoff team at the end of the season, while the Pistons came in to February thinking about the first pick in this summer's draft.

As Frank said, things can change in a hurry.