You know the old saying: you can't win 'em all. There are some gentlemen in Foxboro who may disagree, but the theory holds up for the most part. Which the Celtics and their eager fans learned last night at the Garden, as the battle-tested Pistons came in and outlasted the C's for the first home loss of the season.

It was a great game, though. The first quarter belonged to Rajon Rondo, including an early Play of the Year candidate where he drove the lane and stopped short, faking out Rasheed Wallace to the point where he wondered if he still had his wallet, then laying in 2 easy points. Garnett was shooting well (28 pts), Ray Allen looked good after his 2-game layoff (24), Pierce - well, not so much. It wasn't his night.

The Celts had a lead for most of the game, but Detroit clamped their defense down to a level the Celtics couldn't match. Chauncey Billups put Detroit up 85-79 with 3:33 to go, but with a minute left, Perk blocked Tayshaun Prince to get possession back. 3-pointer for Eddie House, 3-pointer for Ray Allen, and it's a tie ballgame. 18 seconds to go. Tony Allen stripped Billups, and the Celtics designed a play for Pierce, whose bad night continued as he missed with 1.7 to go. The Pistons called a timeout and got it to Billups, who faked out Tony and drew a foul with 0.1 left on the clock. You can't really shoot with 0.1 to go, and you sure can't count on Chauncey Billups missing two clutch free throws (hey, thanks again, Pitino!). Ballgame.

There was a playoff atmosphere at the Garden last night. David Ortiz was courtside in a Ray Allen jersey, and the usual contingent of Patriots. For possibly the first time at the New Garden, the fans kept cheering through a timeout (this was after the Tony Allen steal) to the point where they didn't even try to kill the enthusiasm with a canned cheerleading stunt over the PA like they usually do.

So now it's time to see what the 07-08 Celts are made of. They rebounded from their first two losses with big wins (a 23-pointer over Golden State and the annihilation of the Knicks), which could be trouble if you're the Bulls on Friday.

Image from Amazon.