Baby got big in Detroit; Davis exploded for 20 points at the Palace.

Byline: Bill Doyle

COLUMN: CELTICS NOTES

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - As soon as the Celtics arrived at the Palace of Auburn Hills for their morning shootaround yesterday, fond memories came rushing back to Glen "Big Baby" Davis.

In the Celtics' only regular-season game here, the 6-foot-9 rookie scored 16 points in the fourth quarter and finished with a career-high of 20 on 8-of-10 shooting to lead his team to a 92-85 victory over the Pistons on Jan. 5.

"It was the first thing I thought about when I got off the bus," Davis said.

Last night, Davis and Celtics returned to the Palace for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals.

After the Celtics won here in January, Pistons guard Chauncey Billups remarked how the Celtics acted as if they won the NBA championship. That certainly wasn't the case, but it was a big victory, ending Detroit's 11-game winning streak and avenging a home loss to the Pistons three weeks before. The Celtics had lost seven straight in Detroit and 10 in row overall against the Pistons.

"It felt like a playoff atmosphere," Davis said. "It was a big game, the top two teams in the league playing against each other, it was a loud atmosphere, it was packed in here, unbelievable."

Pierce kept driving to the basket, drawing the defense to him and passing underneath to Davis for layups.

"When you talk about the Celtics," Pierce said, "obviously you talk about me, Kevin (Garnett) and Ray (Allen), but I think a lot of people over the course of the year overlook our bench players, and I think Baby's been one of them. When he's been able to come in, teams just know he's a big body and don't know what he's capable of, but we know what we have in him."

"He played great," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said, "he finished, he played with great energy, he threw his body around, he just had one of those games."

"It was all because of my team really," Davis said, "having faith in me, passing me the ball, making sure I was here, there, they just trusted me."

Davis thinks he surprised the Pistons fans.

"More like a shock," Davis said. "Like, `What is he doing out there? He's a rookie.' Maybe more like, `Wow, I can't believe he's out there doing that.'"

Davis scored in double figures only three other times. He averaged just 4.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in 13.6 minutes per game during the regular season and has averaged only 2.2 points and 1.2 boards in 7.6 minutes in the postseason.

Pistons coach Flip Saunders attributed his team's regular-season loss against the Celtics here in part to fatigue from having played in Toronto the night before and essentially discounted it.

"You can never take a regular-season game," he said, "and compare it to what is going to happen in a playoff situation. Everything is totally different."

Davis disagreed.

"Games like that let us know we can win in places like this," Davis said.

Davis is one of his team's best finishers around the basket. He puts the ball up quickly and forcibly. Davis said he doesn't think about what he's going to do when he has the ball under the basket, he just does it. He creates space by throwing out a hip or moving to the other side of the basket, whatever it takes so he can get his shot off.

Davis, 22, has played in 83 games this season, closing in on the 95 in which he played at LSU over the previous three years combined.

"I feel way beyond a rookie now," Davis said. "Experience in the postseason, contributing in the postseason has just helped me tremendously in my game. I just feel older."

City of action

Detroit is the only city in the country with pro basketball, hockey and baseball teams still playing, and they all played at home last night. The Pistons hosted the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals, the Red Wings hosted the Penguins in the Stanley Cups finals, and the Tigers hosted the Twins.

The Celtics and Bruins could never play at home at the same time because they play in the same building. The Pistons and Red Wings don't.

Tigers closer Todd Jones and his son Alex watched the Pistons' morning shootaround to show their support before Jones headed to Comerica Park.

"I'm an NBA junkie," he said. "Having the chance to watch the Pistons and to get to know them like we've had the chance to get to know them is just an honor and a great feeling."

In 2001, Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars wrote the players on Detroit's other teams to invite them to watch practice and attend games as guests of the Pistons.

"Then the Pistons got real good, and he left the same policy," Jones said.

Ever since then, players on Detroit's teams have supported one another.

"So if you see Chauncey doing a postgame interview, it's in a Tigers hat," Jones said. "If you see us doing postgame interviews, we're wearing Pistons and Red Wings stuff."

Asked if he'd follow the Pistons or Red Wings on television in the bullpen last night, Jones replied, "We're going to leave that one as a no comment. We're going to have ushers giving us updates, I'm sure."

Jones pitched for the Red Sox in 2003 so he is familiar with Boston as a sports city as well.

"The passion in Boston is pretty good," Jones said. "They do a good job of keeping up on all their teams, they're passionate about all their teams, and Detroit is getting that way."

The Tigers were picked by many to win the American League pennant, but they've been disappointing so far.

"The Pistons and Red Wings are certainly playing bigger games than we are," Jones said.

NAME: BOSTON CELTICS

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Boston's Kendrick Perkins, right, loses the ball after colliding with Detroit's Rodney Stuckey in the first quarter.

PHOTOG: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS