The 2025 NBA season rolls on with a huge Eastern Conference matchup on Monday as the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons get the day's action underway. Detroit leads the East with a 20-5 record, while Boston is in third place and five games back at 15-10.

The Pistons are 5-1 in their last six games, including wins over the Hawks and Heat, and they’re 8-3 on their travels this year. One of those losses came in a nail-biter at TD Garden in November, where Cade Cunningham & Co. almost overcame Boston's 47% night from 3-point range.

As the trade window opens, Boston’s strong start has clarified how the Celtics could approach the center market moving forward.

Jaylen Brown and Isaiah Stewart got into a scuffle under the rim which led to both players getting technicals after Brown made a fist at him.

Following his first three-game losing streak in two years, Jaylen Brown reiterated a belief he had stated several times before. This was in late October, after a frustrating road loss to the Detroit Pistons. At 0-3, Brown and the Boston Celtics were in an unfamiliar situation. He still wanted to give his young team time.

What began as a routine matchup for the Boston Celtics against the Detroit Pistons quickly changed tone when Sam Hauser abruptly made his way to the locker room with 9:47 left in the second quarter.

As for the ideal prototype, potential candidates to keep an eye on would be Myles Turner, Nikola Vucevic, and Anthony Davis. So far, the Celtics don’t have a strong link to any of them. The Boston Celtics are reportedly expected to look for opportunities to improve their front court ahead of the February trade deadline.

Former NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway is planning to spend his brief holiday break watching basketball. Just not the NBA.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst ruled out the possibility of the Boston Celtics, or the NBA's 28 other teams, extracting big man Ivica Zubac from the Los Angeles Clipper