The Boston Celtics failed to secure a trip to Las Vegas as their NBA Cup bid came to an end, leaving the defending champions to focus solely on the regular season – starting with the Detroit Pistons.

Jayson Tatum (right patellar tendinopathy) and Jrue Holiday (left knee tendinopathy) were out Wednesday night, leaving Boston without two starters. The obvious disadvantage posed a challenge as the team played three games in four days, but the Celtics didn’t back down, picking up their ninth win at TD Garden of the season and a record of 18-4.

Here are three studs and three duds from Boston’s 130-120 win:

SUPPORT
Jaylen Brown
The reigning NBA Finals MVP was on a mission from the start, from defeating Detroit’s Isaiah Stewart with an electrifying poster dunk in the first quarter to scoring 23 points at halftime. Brown finished with 28 points and shot 10 of 21 from the field with six rebounds, nine assists and three steals barely not achieving a double-double.

Sam Hauser
Depth wasn’t an issue for the Celtics and Hauser’s strong performance dispelled any concerns early in the evening. Hauser, who doesn’t typically come off the bench, provided starter-level performance, scoring a season-high 20 points on 7 of 12 shooting with five three-pointers, two rebounds, three assists and one steal.

Detroit’s courage
The pistons wouldn’t just disappear. Boston took a lead of as many as 20 points, but Detroit didn’t give up and cut the deficit to nine points with 8:57 remaining in the fourth quarter, which unsurprisingly led head coach Joe Mazzulla to call a timeout. Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff may have lost a fifth straight game, but he still deserves a pat on the back for giving the Celtics a chance.

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Idiots
Tim Hardaway Jr.
Detroit failed miserably to complement Cade Cunningham’s double-double (27 points, 14 assists) and Hardway’s 25 minutes of cardio didn’t help. The 32-year-old knocked down just one of two shot attempts and accounted for just two points and three rebounds – which is the fewest points Detroit has ever scored.

Jalen Duren
Normally the Celtics live and die off the sidelines, but when Kristaps Porzingis and Co. started giving Duren hell, the team didn’t give up. Duren shot an ineffective 1 of 5 from the field, scored five points – three of which came from the charity stripe – and committed four turnovers, doubling the turnovers of the entire Boston bench.

Gilbert Arenas (from a distance)
The former All-Star guard ripped Payton Pritchard and questioned his playing time in Boston’s win over the Miami Heat on Monday night – even though Pritchard scored 25 points. Boston’s go-to sixth man finished the game with 19 points, five rebounds and four assists and hit a crucial 3-pointer to give the Celtics a 128-120 lead with 45 seconds left in the fourth quarter.