BOSTON _ Andre Drummond had a monster night against the Boston Celtics.
But he paled in comparison to Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas.
Thomas scored 24 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter to drag the Celtics to a 113-109 victory Monday night at TD Garden.
The Pistons, who have lost three straight, battled back from an 11-point deficit to take a 93-90 with 6:05 remaining.
That's when Thomas, headed to next month's All-Star Game, went to work.
He scored 20 of the Celtics' final 23 points and his 3-pointer with 2:28 remaining gave Boston a 107-103 lead.
A Celtics backcourt violation with 31 seconds left gave the Pistons (21-27) a chance to tie the game, as they were trailing, 109-107.
But a struggling Reggie Jackson missed a layup and Jackson picked up his sixth foul in sending Thomas to the free-throw line.
The All-Star knocked down both to give the Celtics (30-18) a four-point lead with 22 seconds left to effectively end the exciting game.
Drummond kept the Pistons in the game with 28 points and 22 rebounds, his fourth 20-20 game of the season and the 13th of his career.
Jae Crowder scored 21 points for the Celtics.
The Celtics ended the first quarter on a 6-0 run to take a 26-25 lead. It was punctuated by a Marcus Smart 3-pointer with 2.3 seconds left.
The play was set up when Reggie Bullock forced a jump ball against former Piston Amir Johnson.
The taller Johnson easily won the tip and found Smart, who drained the wing triple.
The Pistons struggled offensively for most of the second quarter. They shot less than 30 percent and were 0-for-8 from 3-point range.
And the Celtics surged.
Smart took advantage of the smaller Ish Smith in the post to the tune of six points in the quarter.
Horford, who returned to the lineup after missing two games with a sore groin, nailed a three-pointer with 3.8 seconds left in the first half to give the Celtics a 54-46 lead.
