Paul Pierce made his regular season debut registering 12 points, four rebounds, and five assists in 23 minutes of action.

“It felt good to finally get out there,” Pierce said. “I was expecting to be me and I don’t settle for anything less. I worked tremendously hard. I did a lot of things. I did what I could do coming into the game, as much as I could, other than practice. I just stayed focused.”

The Celtics shot 52.2% and made all 19 of their free throws.

The defense forced the Pistons to miss 13 out of their 16 three-point attempts.

Jermaine O’Neal led the way for the Celtics, generating 19 points to go along with seven rebounds and two blocked shots. He played a season-high 29 minutes.

It was a rare, big performance by Jermaine — so what was the difference?

“Playing extended minutes,” O’Neal said. “When you can get a rhythm, you can get a flow and you can get comfortable with what the team is doing. If you look at the first couple of games, I was in and out so fast that it was almost impossible to get any flow to the game.”

Brandon Bass collected 17 points in 22 minutes off the bench. It was his fourth straight double-digit scoring effort to start the season.

Ray Allen added 17 points. He is now averaging 20 points per game on 58.1% shooting and 58.3% from beyond the arc.

Next Game: Sunday at Washington Wizards, 6 ET.