Celtics break down again

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - The crowd that ruined the Indiana Pacers six years ago was trying to stir the pot again.

Rasheed Wallace, in his return to his previous NBA home, was both cheered and heartily booed. Glen Davis was so enraged by taunts from a fan that he unleashed an obscene response, which led to a complaint lodged with league security.

But the inglorious Detroit Pistons crowd had nothing to do with what sank the Celtics [team stats] last night in a 92-86 loss. For the second straight game the C’s played a great first half, only to give life to the other side over the last 24 minutes.

The Celts have lost three straight games and four of their last five.

Coach Doc Rivers likes to say that he likes the record, now a fading 27-13 that remains second best in the Eastern Conference, but not the performances.

He’s not alone.

“We knew at the half what we were up against, we were up against ourselves,” Rajon Rondo [stats] said of the false sense of security brought on by a 56-47 halftime lead, and what at one stage was a 12-point edge, before their mojo disappeared.

Paul Pierce [stats] scored 19 of his 21 points in the first half.

Ray Allen (3-of-10 shooting) didn’t make his first basket until there was 3:27 left.

Rodney Stuckey’s 27 point performance for the Pistons, complemented by a downtown hail of 3-pointers from Charlie Villanueva in the second half, was simply too much to overcome.

The Celtics, fueled by their low second-half ebb, didn’t score a single second-chance point. Any C’s basket appeared to be made in a state of panic.

Rivers, whose expression loses a little more humor with each one of these games, pointed the finger at himself as well as the rest of his locker room.

“I always point the finger first at me, and I told them that I’m obviously not doing something,” Rivers said. “So I have to go, watch film and figure it out. I just thought we gave up a horrible 3 (by Austin Daye) at the end of the first half. Bad defense hurt us on that play. I think that carried over into the first four or five minutes of the third quarter, and all of a sudden we had a fight on our hands and we couldn’t get it going.

“It is very difficult to turn the switch on and off right now, and that is what we are doing. We are dropping games because of it, too.”

There was a lot of talk about looking at film and looking in the mirror, enough of it that the Celtics may require 15 separate screens this morning.

But there is little doubt that this team, with Kevin Garnett expected to return for tomorrow night’s TD Garden game against the Portland Trail Blazers, has reached a crisis mode.

“It’s unfamiliar to us,” Pierce said, “but this is a strong-minded team.

“We can’t keep this up. It’s playing with fire.”