Celtics hammer Pistons

If you find any red shorts around Boston this weekend, please mail them back to Detroit. The Celtics undressed the Pistons on Thursday night at the Garden, humiliating last year’s Eastern Conference finalists by a 98-80 margin.

What was supposed to be a showdown between two of the league’s powers turned into a junior varsity game in the fourth quarter, when the Celtics led by as many as 29 points without Paul Pierce (nine points, four rebounds, three assists), Kevin Garnett (15 points, four rebounds) or Ray Allen (12 points) even setting foot on the floor.

The Pistons had the answer early in the first quarter, as Allen Iverson (16 points, four assists) scored seven quick points and Detroit raced out to a 13-2 lead in less than four minutes. But that’s when Rajon Rondo (18 points, eight assists) threw his counter punch, scoring six points and dishing out an assist during the Celtics’ 12-1 run that was capped off by Kendrick Perkins’ only two points of the night, a turnaround, fade-away jumper that knotted the score at 14.

The C’s then used a 14-2 spurt that spread between the first and second quarters to go ahead, 28-21. Tony Allen, who scored a season-high 23 points in the Celtics’ win at Detroit on Nov. 9, picked up the pace in the quarter by suffocating Rip Hamilton. Allen (13 points, six rebounds) had five points, two steals and two blocks in the second, and the Celtics took a 49-40 lead at the break.

After the Pistons cut the margin to 10, the Celtics put the hammer down. Boston exploited the Pistons’ soft interior during an 18-5 run that put the Celtics ahead, 75-52. Rasheed Wallace and Kwame Brown — whose NBA career plummeted faster than stock shares for Ford Motor Group — checked out in the third quarter.

There was no fight from there, as the Celtics emptied out their bench in preparation for Friday night’s game against the Timberwolves, which will be the first time Garnett plays in Minnesota since last summer’s trade.