The 38 points George scored in his first game as a Celtic broke Kristaps Porzingis’s franchise record of 30 for a debut, set in October 2023. He shot 12-for-21 from the floor, 7-for-12 from three and 7-for-8 from the free-throw line, adding five rebounds, three assists and five steals in 31 minutes.

Those are the kind of numbers Paul George put up at his All-Star peak, not the ones that followed him through two injury-hit seasons in Philadelphia. In the whole of last season he reached 33 points on just two occasions.

The problem for Boston was that none of it mattered after the fourth quarter. The Celtics led by as many as 22 at Little Caesars Arena before Detroit ripped off a 23-0 run and closed out the NBA’s season opener.

‘The game found him’

Head coach Joe Mazzulla put George’s performance down to how settled he already looked inside the offense.

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“Just his comfort level. The game found him, he made some great reads throughout the game. It was good. He was able to find advantages for himself and others, we just have to continue that,” Mazzulla told Sports Illustrated after the game.

George himself drew a straight line between his night in Detroit and how physically beaten up he had been across his two seasons with the 76ers.

“I would say my stint in L.A. I was pretty healthy to finish my last year there, and then, honestly, going to Philly I just had a bad hyperextension that really set me back and I couldn’t quite shake that one,” George told Sports Illustrated.

Eighth all-time behind the arc

The three-point barrage carried a second milestone. George’s seven makes from distance pushed him past Kyle Korver into eighth place on the NBA’s all-time list for career threes. Six of them came in the first half.

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Boston acquired George in a July trade that sent Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia along with draft picks. The deal was the biggest change to the Celtics’ core since their 2024 title run and reshuffled Boston’s wing rotation around Jayson Tatum.

Tatum’s cold night at the other end

Tatum could not find his range, a shooting night that left Boston short of a counter when Detroit mounted its second-half comeback.

Boston host the New York Knicks in their home opener at TD Garden on Friday 23 October, with tip-off at 7pm ET.

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